SEALS in the Darkness
by Heir of the void
Summary: The lab responsible for the Witches hid its actions well, but not well enough. When the CIA discovers that something is amiss in Japan, a crack team is deployed to investigate. Spearheading this operation are elite Special Forces soldiers and expert CIA intelegence and espionage personnel. This is their story.
1. Chapter 1

Alexander Knight sat down at his workstation, logged in, and changed the world.

He was a young man for his position as a full intelligence Analyst of the Central Intelligence Agency, having just graduated from college a few short months ago. He had attended the [REDACTED] Institute on an ROTC scholarship, and expected to be deployed to the sandbox after graduation.

As he took a sip from his 'WORD'S BEST ANALYST' coffee mug, filled with cocoa rather than any caffeinated beverage, he considered how things hadn't exactly gone to plan.

After he graduated from school, he had been approached by the CIA. Apparently it was because of his test scores, as well as something one of his professors had said to a CIA recruiter, but he had been offered the opportunity to transfer out of the Army and into The Company to complete his years of Government Service. It was all rather irregular, but after some soul-searching, he had decided that his country needed a good analyst more than another set of boots on the ground, and he had accepted the offer.

Alexander had been assigned to the Far East division at Langley, meaning that most of his... studies... focused on the Glorious People's Republic of China, which was important, fulfilling work.

However, not all of his attention was focused on the PRC. He had taken Japanese in high school and College, and so he was often sent work related to the Land of the Rising Sun. It was considered low-priority, given that the U.S. and Japan were, after all, _allies_, and not particularly attractive work, which was probably why he, as the new guy, got it.

That was what he was working on now. As he flicked through intelligence reports gathered by contacts in Japan, something just seemed _off_ to him. Dresden Pharmaceuticals seemed to be the one of the prime sources of his discomfort, and not without good reason.

The report he was looking at now concerned with one of their factories, and a slight imbalance in the quantities of materials they were receiving compared to the amount of drugs they were producing, particularly at their Takayama facility. That, in itself, wouldn't have been worthy of CIA attention, but there were a million little other things that made the company suspicious, many of which Alexander had noticed.

Profits that were higher than sales indicated they should be. Greater employment than production, research, and development would require. R&amp;D projects that didn't seem to go anywhere. Given that the company sold drugs in the United States, this was a matter of some concern.

Alex reviewed a few new pieces of information on Dresden and tagged them with his analysis, then kicked them up the ladder. There was very little new in the Dresden folder; it was not his main concern today. He opened the next file he had been instructed to look at. Various reports of 'magic' used throughout a certain region of Japan, but nowhere else.

This was the real deal. _This_ was why Alexander had taken this job. Looking at the inexplicable and incomprehensible actions of other nations and dissecting them, breaking them down into their component pieces, and discovering the logic behind them. Figuring out what made people and nations tick.

And besides this 'magic' thing was _very_ interesting.

He tagged the reports, sorted them according to detail and reliability, and kicked them up to the next level. This had come to his desk because they were, for whatever reason, more detailed and reliable than the usual UFO sightings.

And if there was a possibility than _any_ government had harnessed something like magic, the U.S. Government had to know. Something like that could have a massively destabilizing influence, even starting another word war.

One word had come up frequently in Japanese government communications in relation to these reports. Vingulf. Whatever it meant, Alexander was desperate to find out.

**Break**

_Center on the target and pull the trigger_. Alexander thought, drawing a bead on the distant target and pulling the trigger. The gun leapt in his hands and discharged with a rush of smoke and a loud _bang_.

Alexander fired again three more times, thinking over what he had seen in the reports he had read. He had dug deeper into the reports of 'magic', and found that there was indeed something strange going on. Cases of fires with no cause discovered, strange deaths, and so forth. It was amazing what you could discover when you pieced together just unclassified police reports.

_Something is definitely going on here_, Alex thought, as he fired another shot. There had been one particularly unusual case where a fast food restaurant had been declared a biohazard site, closed to the public, and cordoned off. However, the satellite images, gained by an observation satellite maneuvering to search an area of Africa, told a different story. It appeared from the satellite shots that the joint had been _blown up_ and possibly set on fire, and no biohazard response was evident from the images.

After that, Alexander had pulled literally everything he could on the region in a crusade to find a logical explanation for the event, and several others like it. Hours of frustrated research later, Alex was no closer to finding an answer. At that point, he decided to go down to the shooting range to let off some steam.

_If magic is real_... he thought, firing again, _then... what? What does that mean?_

Another person stepped up to the shooting space next to him and raised a handgun. She fired several shots in quick succession, then paused for a moment. Alex fired another shot, then lowered his gun and turned to look at her.

"Hey!" He said, shouting so she could hear him through her hearing protection, "Anna! What have you been working on?"

She removed her hearing protection and turned toward him. "Alexander. How have you been?"

"Pretty good." Alexander said, looking over the young woman standing in front of him. She was tall, with long blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail. Her face was soft, but with the ghost of a severe expression touching her features. In all, she was a rather attractive woman, but she gave off a certain... aura that made her seem rather distant. "I've been working on some Japan stuff. How about you?"

"Far East." Anna said. "China. True Korea. The usual. Nothing to significant."

"I know what you mean." Alexander said. "I've been working on magic."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me they restated that goat program again."

"Nothing like that. Some weird stuff has been happening in Japan, and I've been looking into it."

"Come on." Anna said. "Magic? Are you serious? I'm sure there's a perfectly plausible explanation for all of this," she waved her hand, "whatever it is you're talking about."

"I feel like that too," Alex said, "but some of the stuff I've seen on file is pretty weird. And it's all concentrated in the past month, in one region."

"So maybe the Japanese government is trying to cover something." Anna muttered. "I know that sounds more plausible to me."

"Yeah, but what would they be trying to cover up?" Alexander said.

**BREAK**

"So we appear to have a problem here." Dominic Winters, Director of Intelligence, said, lightly placing his fist on the conference table. "I've looked through the reports Knight has assembled, and they are quite convincing."

"So you're convinced that we have a Japanese magic problem?" The Director of Support said, looking at Winters skeptically. "Seems like that was a little easy."

"I've been looking at this problem for some time." Winters said. "And the evidence has convinced me. One of my people has been on this case for a while, and-"

"Your 'Boy Wonder'?" The Director of Science and Technology said.

"Yes, what of it?" Winters muttered. "He's better than half of the idiots we employ already, and that's with just six months on the job."

"How is this relevant?" The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Martin Griffin, said.

"I just wanted to clear that up." Science and Technology said.

"Let's stay on topic." Griffin said, shuffling his printouts of Alexander's reports on the topic at hand. "So, about this magic concern?"

Winters stood up and cleared his throat. "Gentlemen, for the past month or so, we have been gathering a number of reports of incidents involving the usage of 'magic' in the [REDACTED] region of Japan. Normally this would go in the same folder as the aliens and UFO sightings, but Knight has apparently convinced several members of my staff that there's more to it than that..."

"Convinced you how?" The Director of the National Clandestine Service said. "It would take a lot to convince me that the Japs have come up with some kind of-"

Winters pressed a button next to his desk, and a projector mounted on the ceiling flickered to life. A slideshow image appeared on the far wall, displaying a compilation of the most compelling evidence Alexander had gathered thus far. All of the various directors present took a moment to look it over.

"Well, I'm convinced." National Clandestine Service said. "Not that this is magic, but there is definitely some weird-ass shit going on here. What do you want to do about it?"

"I'll need your people." Winters said to NCS. "But really, I'll need the whole Company. SOCOM, too."

"What you're talking about would require congressional approval." The Director of Support said. "If we want to get the military involved, that means-"

"You let me worry about congress." Griffin said. "What we need to do here is analyze this threat, if it is one, and determine a course of action."

"In that case, I wholeheartedly support Intelligence's plan." NCS said, smiling. "And not just because I'm a SOCOM fanboy."

"But what, exactly, would Intelligence's plan entail?" Support said. "I, for one, am not convinced that calling SOCOM is the right move. For one thing, we don't even know enough about this threat to have a hard target for them."

"Thank you, Support," Winters said, pressing his button again, flicking to a slide labeled, quite eloquently, 'THE PLAN'. "We intend to deploy a mixture of HUMINT assets and our own paramilitary units to the [REDACTED] region of Japan order to determine the nature of the threat and identify hard targets for SOCOM."

"I'm a bit concerned about all this, to be honest." Public Affairs said. "I know none of you people ever have to clean up your own messes, but that's, to be blunt, in the Third World, not one of our staunchest allies. People aren't too comfortable with the idea that commandos might come busting down _their_ doors one day."

"We would be fully prepared to disavow the teams in the event of discovery." Winters declared, pointing at a bullet on the slide. "They would not be deployed with any incriminating evidence, and they would be armed entirely with weapons purchased off of African battlefields. No chance of those being traced back to the U.S."

Public Affairs turned green. "You're going to _arm_ them? I thought Japan was crazy about gun control, and-"

"They'll have to be discrete," Winters said, neatly cutting off Public Affairs. "But I'm not prepared to send my agents into a situation with this many unknowns unarmed. That's just asking for trouble, even more than sending them in armed is."

"What, exactly, if anything, are we prepared to tell the public about this?" The Inspector General said. "This seems important, and I'm willing to approve whatever you people think is necessary. However, what do we tell the American public about this?"

Winters sighed. "Optimal? Nothing. Anything we put out to the public will be all over the internet in minutes, and therefore we alert whoever it is we're going after as to what is happening, which is bad. In the more likely event of having to release something, we plant our agents, then tell the public what we're doing, forgetting to mention that our people are already in place. That way, at least we avoid ceding the initiative to the enemy."

"Fine," Public Information said. "But I'm still skeptical that you can pull this off without telling anyone, particularly if you need SOCOM."

"We have a plan." Winters said. "And God willing, our luck will actually hold for once. Now, this is the basic idea behind what we're going to do..."

Winters spent the next half hour going over the specific details of the plan his department had concocted. There were disagreements about the personnel allocations, and of course the potential cost of the operation was an issue. However, as more and more of the evidence was revealed to the assembly, the directors were convinced, one by one, of the necessity of the mission. Not that any of them would admit to believing that it was really _magic_ they were going after, of course, but still...

"By the way," National Clandestine Service said, after Winters reviewed a slide containing the proposed usage of Special Forces in the mission. "Are we sure that General Ochoa will go along with this? He may not like all the cloak-and-dagger bullshit involved."

"He'll tolerate it." The Director said. "He's worked with us in the past, and he's tolerated the cloak-and-dagger then, and he will do it again. Plus, he'll love the opportunity to do something like this. I think he's always wanted the opportunity to see something magical, and he won't mind hiding it from the public, if we can get the authorization to move ahead.

"Fair enough." NCS said, putting his hand on his chin. "But who do we use for this mission?"

"I have people in mind." Winters said, smiling. "We'll probably have to send in Knight, if for no other reason than to have his expertise on-site. I'm working on hand-picking people from our paramilitary department to escort his team, and will have a genuine field operative there to train him before the mission and stop them from standing out."

"So before we put this to a vote," The Inspector General said, standing up, "I want to know _why_ we're doing this. I mean, what are our stated reasons going to be, and why are we _really_ doing this."

"Why we say we are doing this is simple." Winters said, pressing his button and advancing his slideshow as the Inspector General sat down. "We have several American Citizens who have vanished in this region of Japan, and we say that we are looking to get them back."

"Missing AmCits?" NCS exclaimed, bolting to his feet. "Why didn't you mention this earlier? This puts a completely new spin on this situation."

"Because it's hardly relevant to the mission." Winters said smoothly. "The most recent of the disappearances was more than eight years ago, and the rest were all more than ten. There is no chance of finding these people on this mission, though we could produce some evidence saying that there might be. However, it's a very convenient cover story."

"Still, my question stands." The Inspector General said. "Why are we really doing this? Violating the sovereignty of an ally is not something to do lightly."

"We're doing this because there are too many unknowns." Winters said. "And it is our duty to the American people to know. And with a situation like this, who knows? The whole world may be at stake."

"Fine." The Inspector General said. "This has gone on long enough. Let's put it to a vote. All in favor of proceeding with this operation, raise your hands."

One by one, all the directors, save Public Affairs, raised their hands. The Director nodded.

Public Affairs looked around the table and shook his head. "I'm man enough to know when I'm beat." He said. "And I'll go along with this. But I just want to go on the record as saying I thought this was a bad idea."

"Fair enough." The Director said. "Then shall we proceed with this Operation... Blazing Summer?"

**Break**

As the rest of the directors filed out of the conference room, the Griffin beckoned Winters over to him.

"What is it, Martin?" Winters said, walking over to the Director.

"You've kicked up quite a storm, Dominic." The Director said, shaking his head. "I don't think I've even seen an operation come together out of nothing like this quite so quickly."

"Well... truth be told, I've been planning this for quite some time." Winters said. "I don't even know if Knight is aware of it, but his reports are causing quite a stir."

"I'm aware of that." Griffin said. "I am simply remarking that it is impressive how quickly we have come to an agreement on a course of action. Remarkable, no?"

"Yes, though what I find remarkable about it is the evidence that Knight has managed to string together." Winters said. "It's a bizarre proposition, make no mistake, but..."

"We don't lose anything by investigating." Griffin said.

"If we handle this situation properly." Winters said, eyes narrowing. "There is considerable risk if we handle it improperly."

"Which we won't." Griffin said.

**Break**

"So that, in a nutshell, is what I've been looking at over the past few months." Anna said, folding her arms.

"Really. So the Chinese have been quiet lately, huh," Alex muttered.

The pair were still standing outside the shooting range, where they had been talking for the past few minutes. They had returned their guns, and stepped outside to talk, and their conversation had quickly turned to matters of work."

"So, how about you?" Anna said.

"This and that." Alex said, "I've had a lot of stuff about Japan come across my desk, and there's some weird stuff going on if the reports are to be believed."

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, tilting her head forward.

"Uptick in strange injuries, property damage, road closings, and, oddly enough, biohazard warnings."

"That could be part of a cover-up."

"Yes, which is what I think. We've got some satellite images that corroborate the idea that the Japanese may be trying to cover something up, which is about the closest thing I have to evidence of anything going on. The rest is all in trends, anomalies, things like that."

"And what have you told the bosses?"

"I've flagged everything that looks suspicious and passed it up, along with a few reports on the oddities. I don't know what they're doing about it, but-"

The doors to the lounge outside the shooting range opened, and two well-muscled men in suits entered. "Hello," the man on the right said. "We are here to talk to Alexander Knight. Miss Patton, if we may borrow him for the moment?"

"Sure." Anna said, "Fine by me."

"Um, what do you want?" Alexander said.

"If you'll come with us, we'll explain." The speaker said, his facial expression unchanged.

"Fine." Alex said. He hadn't gotten into the Agency by being unaware of when he was being ordered to do something.

"Thank you." The man said, turning around.

Alexander walked out of the room with the two men flanking him. He wondered what in the world the upper management, the only ones who could have sent for him like this, would want with him.

The two men led him out down one of the long, ubiquitous, hallways in the Langley Headquarters. They walked him to a staircase, and up several levels, then out and down another hallway.

Eventually, uncomfortable with the silence, Alex chose to speak. "Where are we going?" He asked, looking toward the stony-faced guard who had spoken earlier.

The man said nothing for a moment, then; "You're going to Mr. Winter's office. Apparently, you're to be briefed for a mission."

Alex was taken aback at his words. _A mission? Does that mean field work?_ He thought, considering the possibilities. The most likely location for field work was the Middle East, but that didn't make any sense. He was specialized in the Far East, and there were people much more qualified than him for any sort of field work.

The trio rounded a corner and came to a short hallway with, with a single door at one end. "We're here." One of the burly men said. "Good luck."

Alex stepped forward gingerly, not sure what the correct procedure for this sort of situation was. He paused in front of the door for a moment, then decided to simply open it and walk in. It wasn't as if his boss wasn't expecting him.

As Alexander stepped inside, the first thing he noticed was how _ordinary_ the room looked. For a man most of the public would recognize as a spymaster, the room was surprisingly plain. Standard-issue furniture, tacky government-issue decorations, and a desk covered in printouts. Behind it, a man sat leaning back in a swivel chair. He was surprisingly short, with close-cropped brown hair and nondescript features.

He was, perhaps, the most obvious spy ever.

"Umm, hello, sir." Alex said, falling into parade rest out of old habits. "I was told you wanted to speak to me?"

"Ah, yes, Alexander Knight." The man, Dominic Winters, said. "You've been causing quite a stir, did you know that?"

"No, sir." Alex responded.

"Well, the reports you've turned in over the past month have been disconcerting, to say the very least." Winters shuffled some paper on his desk, then picked one up. "Like this one. 'A Report on the Possibility of Preternatural Activity in the Far Eastern Theater'. A rather bland title for such an influential paper."

Alex shook his head. "What do you mean, sir? That's just an analysis of the evidence I was assigned, exactly as requested. It crossed my mind that it might be a joke, sir, but-"

"_Is_ this a joke? Because we're about to act based on this report, and if it's a load of-"

"It's no joke, sir." Alex said. "That's exactly what the evidence implies."

"Good. Because we're planning a significant operation around this report, and I want to be sure we're on the same page."

"Yes, sir."

"So, you think the Japanese have discovered magic, and they're trying to keep it hidden?"

"No, sir, that's simply based on the rumors. I do, however, think they're trying to conceal something."

"Good. Because we're sending you in to figure out what's happening."

Alexander paled. This was confirmation. "Sir, I had hardly the best choice for something like this. I am not trained for-"

"Not so cavalier now that it's your skin on the line, huh?" Winters said. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. We're just sending you in to work on any data our field teams may collect. You'll never be in any real danger."

"That's not it, sir. I'm just not sure what... why aren't we doing this through official channels? Why risk a covert operation on the soil of one of our allies?"

"Because of your report, kid. Is something is going on, it's being covered up, and nobody covers up something on this scale without the involvement of the local government. So we're just going to go in on the down-low and have a look around, ok?"

Winters ruffled through his papers again, then pulled out a folder labeled 'OPERATION BLAZING SUMMER-ALEXANDER KNIGHT.'

"Here you go." He said, handing the folder to Alex, "Read through that when you have the chance, by which I mean right after this meeting."

"So, you said that I'll be analyzing intelligence." Alex said slowly, "But what part will I be playing in this operation?"

"Exactly that. You, and a small team will be deployed to the region that seems to be the center of all of this, and serve as a nerve center for the teams on the ground that will be gathering information on events in the region, as well as conducting limited intelligence gathering activities."

"I understand, sir." Alex said, processing the information he had been given. He was deploying to a foreign nation in order to conduct espionage activities. It was... something. Very something. He had rather mixed feelings about the whole affair. It was strange, having the whole agency jumping at one of his reports.

"Good. You took Japanese in high school and college and have completed our fluency exam, so no problems there." Winters said. "We'll have someone there the mentor you on field work, but your job won't entail any of that."

"That you, sir." Alex said.

**Break**

Nathan Hunter sulked through the jungle, carrying pack on his shoulder, rifle in hand. He had been in this miserable hellhole for days now, even since he had been dropped off in the jungle on his mission.

He climbed a small ridge, brushing aside leaves and vines as he walked forward. He reached down to his belt, grabbed his bottle and took a sip of water. His clothing was drenched in sweat, and he had to drink constantly to maintain his body. He couldn't carry all the water he needed with him, either, so he had been forced to collect, filter, and purify some from a stream. He hoped that he had done it properly, or he would suffer a long, lingering death from some jungle parasite.

No pressure.

As he reached the top of the ridge, he slunk past a black-and-red striped, possibly lethal, snake, and assumed his position at the top of the ridge. He was at the very edge of a large, artificial clearing in the jungle, where, if his information was correct, a small brush plane would soon be landing. There was a short runway in the clearing consisting mostly of compacted dirt, with a few ramshackle buildings next to it.

Nathan was a tall man, with short black hair, currently glossy with ambient moisture. He had several scars on his face from various incidents over the years, and a slight twist to his nose that reconstructive surgery hadn't quite managed to correct.

At present, his reason for sulking in the jungle had to do with a certain arms dealer, one who had been determined as getting too friendly with various terrorist groups. Now, as he visited on of his clients in Africa, Nathan had been deployed by the Agency to eliminate him in a way that could be blamed on his local rivals.

Nathan opened the scope on his sniper rifle and took aim at the distant landing strip, resting his rifle on a convenient fallen log. Then, slowly, he began to dial in to the local conditions. Wind was low, thank God, humidity was high, and temperature was high. He adjusted his sight for the conditions at hand and prepared to make the shot. Then he waited.

And waited some more.

After long while, a distant buzz became audible over the sounds of the jungle. It grew in volume as its source moved towards Nathan, and he went over his preparations again and took a deep breath.

The brush plane came into sight, flying low across the jungle. As it came in for a landing, Nathan flexed the arm holding his rifle. He was ready.

The plane circled once, then came in for a landing. Several figures walked out of the buildings next to the runway and approached the plane. Nathan raised his scope to his eyes and played it over the landed plane. Several people disembarked from the aircraft. Nathan looked over each of them in turn. Given the plane's specs and the distance it had traveled, it couldn't carry that many people, so one of these had to be his target.

No... No... No... There he was. The last one to disembark the plane, the arms dealer. He was staying in the shadow of the aircraft, trying to make himself a hard target for snipers.

Unfortunately for him, he was up against one of the best.

Nathan lined up his shot and took a deep breath. Then he heard something. A steady, rhythmic thumping sound. A helicopter.

_Who the hell is this?_ Nathan thought. Had the deal gone bad in big way? Who the hell would send a helicopter all the way out here?

Nathan another deep breath, then took the shot. He rocked back, absorbing the recoil from the powerful rifle, which discharged with a suppressed cough.

Before the sound from the rifle discharging could reach him, the arms dealer crumpled, detail obscured by the extreme range. The helicopter was getting closer. Nathan stood up and turned around and prepared to flee into the jungle.

Then the miniguns opened up. It wasn't so much a rapid series of bangs as it was a continuous _whir_, the sound of four thousand explosions a minute in rapid succession. The fire from the heavy guns went on for a moment, then cut out. There was silence for a moment, then it was shattered by three gunshots.

Nathan sighed. Curiosity killed the cat, but he was an inquisitive creature. Slowly, he turned around and made his way to the very edge of the jungle.

A massive assault carrier descended into the jungle, barrels of its wing-mounted miniguns slowly rotating as it descended toward the floor of the clearing.

The brush plane was barley in one piece. It was covered in bullet holes and resting on one wing. Ruined bodies lay scattered around the runway, lying in pools of their own blood.

The helicopter slowly descended toward the floor of the jungle, making contact just as the barrels of its miniguns stopped spinning. The side door opened as it touched down, and a man dressed in a business suit stepped out of the aircraft. Nathan was taken aback as he looked. It was Deputy Director Hammond.

"Mr. Hunter!" He shouted, "Good work on your mission, but the situation has changed. It's time to come home!"

Nathan appeared out of the jungle and began walking toward the Deputy Director. If something had happened that forced him to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere, it was serious business indeed.

"What is it?" Nathan asked as he with the man.

"Nathan." He responded, "have we got a job for you!"


	2. Chapter 2

Alexander Knight, a twenty-year-old freshly minted CIA agent sat in his economy seat on a trans-Pacific flight, going over the details of his cover identity on his computer.

No, wait. Calvin Brown sat next to Maria Baker in the economy section of Oceanic Airlines Flight 394, looking at something of absolutely no importance on his laptop computer. He was a Canadian College student of twenty-three years, traveling to Japan with his girlfriend in on a vague summer semester of 'study-abroad' that involved no actual program of studies. He was a major in art with a minor in music theory, and possessed no artistic or musical talent whatsoever.

He was exactly the sort of person that most of humanity would give little more than a pitying shake of the head. Perhaps a few parents might warn their children never to end up like Calvin Brown, but that was about it.

Which, of course, made it the perfect identity for Alexander's purposes.

He turned to Anna Patton, who sat in the aisle seat next to him. "So," he said. "Do you suppose it's safe to, you know..."

"Don't get any ideas, mister." She spat. "We may be dating, but we are not dating."

"So then you do think it's safe to talk."

"Of course." She said, rolling her eyes. "The agency has already secured the tapes for this flight, the movie is playing, and in any event, there shouldn't be any voice recorders in the passenger area of this aircraft."

"Thanks for the answer," Alex said. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask you what your thoughts were about this mission."

She shrugged. "It's a mission. That's all there is to it, right."

Alexander sighed. "You're an intelligence analyst, Anna. Neither of us is trained for this. Doesn't that make you even the slightest bit worried?"

She elbowed him. "Man up. Are you telling me you're scared by an itsy-bitsy deployment to Japan? Weren't you supposed to join the Army and go off to places with people actually shooting at you?"

Alex gave Anna a blank look. "Of course I'm scared. I'd be insane if I wasn't. For one thing, if this mission goes badly, we could be up against an entire country. Secondly, that's not really what scares me."

"What do you mean?"

"It's... failure that scares me. What if I'm not good enough to pull this off? What if I screw up because I'm not trained for this shit? What if I let the American people and everyone back at the Agency down?"

"Don't worry about that." Anna said. "If there really is magic involved, there's really no telling how high the stakes could go. It could be that you could let all of humanity down if you screw up."

Alex exhaled and tugged nervously at his artsy shirt. "Real helpful, Anna."

"Just doing my job."

"So, how long until we land?" Alex asked, changing the subject

"Not too much longer now." Anna muttered, opening something on her laptop. "The flight itself is about two more hours, and then we have to clear customs."

"We're supposed to be elite agents." Alex said, turning to look out his window at the endless carpet of clouds passing by beneath the airliner. "I'm surprised that there's nothing the Company can do about this flight."

"Well, obviously there's nothing they can do about the flight." Anna said, "They could put us on a diplomatic ticket, but that would be rather conspicuous, which would sort of render the whole thing rather pointless, wouldn't it. Well, I suppose that they could- Are you even listening to me?"

"I know that." Alex said. "Um, I mean yes. What was the question?"

"Never mind." Anna shook her head. "So, what do you think of the rest of the team?"

"They're okay, I suppose." Alex said, "I do wonder if they really pulled Nathan out of the jungle right before we met him, though."

"I can't imagine why they would lie about something like that."

"I can. It could be that his previous location was even more classified than what they told, or something like that. The point is, given the man, it seems plausible."

Alex sighed, then something seemed to occur to him.

"Do you think he'll really be good in an urban environment, through?" Alex asked, "I mean, Tokyo is a far cry from the jungles of Uganda."

"For one thing, we aren't deploying in Tokyo." Anna said. "Secondly, I'm pretty sure there are no jungles in Uganda."

"I knew that." Alexander lied. "The point still stands."

"He was hand-picked for this mission." Anna said. "I'm sure he'll be perfectly competent. What about the other guy? Ishikawa Kuroda?"

"He's supposed to be our local guide, isn't he?" Alex said. "He seemed like a decent enough guy when we met him back at the airport, right."

"I hope he knows the area, though," Anna muttered. "I mean, how long has it been since he's been there?"

"In sure they never would have picked someone without the necessary skills and experience for the job."

"So you can- forget it." Anna reached up and grabbed a strand of her hair, which she was wearing unbound for the flight, then sighed. "What do you think we're really going to find when we get there? Do you really think its going to be, well, you know..."

"No, I don't." Alexander said, looking down. ""There's only anecdotal evidence of those kinds of things are actually occurring. However, there is hard evidence that something big is going on."

"So then you don't believe your own report?"

"Honestly? I don't. I turned in that report because," He shook his head. "I don't know why I turned it in."

"I see." Anna said, looking across the aisle of the aircraft. "So do you think this is all a waste of time?"

"I never said that. If there really is something going on, we would be fools not to at least check it out."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like those ESP experiments they did back in the sixties. We couldn't risk not investigating psychic powers, just in case they did exist. We couldn't let the Soviet Union find them first."

"I see. So you turn in a report you don't believe, and when the entire Agency flips out over it, you start having second thoughts."

"I just-"

"Have some more confidence in yourself, Knight." Anna said. "I think you actually did believe that report, or you wouldn't have turned it in. And I have no idea what we're going to find in Japan."

"You sound happy about that."

"I never said that I wasn't."

**Break**

"Well, your papers seem to be in order." The customs attendant said in slightly accented English. "I believe that you are good to go."

"Thanks." Alex said, trying to sink into his Calvin Brown persona as he took his digitally 'stamped' passport from the attendant. He considered saying something else, but decided that would be breaking character.

"Enjoy your time in Japan, Mr. Brown. Next!"

Alexander walked through the customs gate. Anna intercepted him on the other side.

"So we're through." She said.

"So it would appear." Alex replied. "That was surprisingly painless, actually."

"We'll have to see if all of our luggage cleared, though."

Alex nodded. There were some rather... unconventional items in their luggage. If the bag got confiscated, it could potentially flag the pair for further attention, which was the last thing they wanted.

And that was if the security people didn't find the hidden compartment.

The pair began navigating the complex airport concourse, looking for the baggage claim. Eventually they found it, a series of carousels corresponding to airlines. Alex and Anna began weaving through the crowd toward the Oceanic Airlines claim. They arrived, and Alexander began scanning the bags on the conveyor belt for the ones he wanted.

That was when he saw something rather unusual.

A young woman was climbing onto the baggage claim, right next to Alexander's questionables bag. She had long brown hair and was wearing a single-piece grey dress.

"Is... Is she doing what I think she is?"

"I think so." Anna said in a terse whisper.

The girl made it onto the baggage claim and grabbed Alexander's bag. She began maneuvering it, and several other suitcases, in front of her, forming a sort of wall between herself and the crowd. Oddly enough, no one appeared to be paying her much mind. As the carousel moved, it took her, and the bag, closer and closer to the end of the track, where the conveyor belt disappeared into a hole in the wall obscured by hanging strips of rubber.

Alex made a snap decision. "I'm going after her." He said.

"You do that." Anna said, reaching down to her pocket and pulling out her smartphone. She entered her password and selected a bolded button.

"Security is down." She said, "Go!"

Alex bolted forward, climbing onto the baggage claim, and crouched down just as the girl passed out of sight. Anticipating that something might happen at the airport, the CIA had contacted a client agent and had them implant a remote-activated virus at the airport terminal to disable the security cameras for part or all of the building, allowing the agents to avoid or neutralize an incident without blowing their cover.

That was now paying dividends.

As soon as he was past the rubber curtain, Alexander stood up and bolted forward, then looked around.

He was behind the scenes at the airport. The floor had transitioned to raw concrete, and conveyor belts at various heights off of the floor carried the luggage from hundreds of flights and tens of thousands of passengers to the baggage claim.

Alex scanned the contents of the carousel and spotted his bag on the conveyor belt. He grabbed it off and quickly unzipped it, revealing a wide array of items. Alex dug through the bag, glad that he had been required to memorize the locations of everything in it. He grabbed a pair of latex gloves out of a bag and slipped them on, placed a communicator micro-bead in his ear, then slipped a few zip ties and a package of smoke bombs into his pockets.

Then Alex unzipped an interior compartment in the bag and pulled out his trump card.

It was a .45 caliber custom handgun, made especially by the CIA for missions like this. It was made from plastics, with ceramic materials in any areas expected to be exposed to heat. It was stored in a special compartment designed to project a false image to x-ray scanners. He collected the two clips of ceramic ammunition stored with the weapon and stuffed them in his pocket, which was considerately designed for just such a purpose.

Alex stood up and looked from side to side, searching for the girl. He spotted her attempting to climb over one of the conveyor belts and ran toward her, gun held pointing downward, but ready.

She whirled around and looked at him, eyes wide.

"I'm not here to hurt you." He said in Japanese, holding up his hands so the gun was pointed away from her.

"You aren't?" She said. "You aren't with the lab?"

Now that Alexander wasn't chasing after the girl, he was able to get a better look at her. She was on the short side, and her long brown hair hung in disarray around her head. She had Asian facial features, and her skin was a light tan. Her face would be natural on any teenage girl, but there was a crazed looked in her eye that Alex had seen in trauma patients before

"I'm not with them." Alexander declared. "Do you speak English?"

"Yes." She said, switching languages.

"Okay, good." Alexander said. He was confident in his Japanese skills, but wouldn't rate himself as a fully fluent speaker. In any case, speaking in English would reduce the odds a random passerby would be able to understand what they were saying.

"What lab are you talking about?" He asked slowly. He was clearly dealing with someone who was extremely terrified of... something.

"The lab that made us... Wait, you mean you don't know?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't. What are you talking about."

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. We promised not to tell outsiders." She said. "When they catch me, they'll kill you if they find you with me."

Alex froze. Shoot on sight was generally not a common Japanese police tactic, if he remembered correctly. Either this girl was out of her mind, or there was something seriously wrong here.

"Don't worry about that. I can handle myself." Alexander said. "Um... what's your name?"

"I'm Hikari." She said. "Hikari Chiba."

"What are you doing here?" Alex asked softly, trying to be as unintimidating as possible while holding a gun. "Why were you trying to steal my luggage?"

She blushed. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure no one noticed me."

"So why are you here?"

"I was-" The girl flung her hand up and closed her eyes. A massive thud came from somewhere behind Alex.

He whirled around. In front of him was a glittering wall of light, like a thousand glowing threads woven into a single plane in the air. Behind that was a pile of rubble and chunks of concrete scattered over the previously-clean airport floor. Dust hung in the air, obscuring sight.

"So I've finally found you, brat." A hard feminine voice said. "You did well getting this far, but you aren't running any farther."

A woman strode out of the cloud of dust and stood in front of the transparent wall. She appeared to be about Alexander's age, with white hair hanging down to her shoulders. The most noticeable thing about her was the collar, a massive metal affair resting on her shoulders. She wore a plain brown jumpsuit that emphasized her large... assets, and stood with one hand on her hip.

"You can't take me back to them." Hikari pled. "They'll eject me for sure."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." The woman said. "They told me to deal with you myself."

Hikari shrunk back. "Please, no." She whispered.

"Begging for mercy won't help you," The woman said. "And I'm a full rank above you. You could never beat me, even if your power let you fight."

Alexander's mind was running in overdrive. Powers? Ejected? What are they talking about? What the hell was going on here? He looked toward the newcomer. "What are you talking about? What do you want with this girl?"

"This doesn't concern you," She announced. "Turn and run right now, and I might just consider sparing your life."

Alex reached down slowly into his pocket. "I'll ask you again. What are you doing here?"

"You have chosen your own fate." The woman said. She held her arms out to the side, and several pieces of the rubble on the floor began to levitate. They hung in the air for a moment, then shot forward, impacting the wall between Alex and the woman.

The chunks of concrete shattered as they impacted, sending dust and shards of stone flying. The wall faded as each of the rocks impacted, and the last one punched through it, and shot past Alex's head. He could feel the wind as it rushed past his ear

The concrete on the ground, the material still attached to the floor, began to vibrate in front of the woman, then began to flow forward like water, waves of concrete lapping toward Alexander's feet. Then a blob of the liquefied concrete levitated to head height.

Alex jerked the smoke bomb he was holding out of his pocket and flung it onto the ground. While it exploded and smoke billowed outwards, Alex dove to the side.

The blob of liquid concrete shot past where his head had just been and splattered against the far wall. Alex raised his gun and fell into a shooter's stance as he recovered, then fired a shot toward where the woman had been standing. He didn't know what was going on, but he guessed she was behind it.

As the bullet _clanged_ against something in the distance, Alexander was already moving. The smoke provided him with concealment from the woman, and thus hopefully some protection against whatever she could do, but it also prevented him from being able to see her.

He moved through the smoke, pulling up his shirt to filter his air. The smoke was mostly harmless, but it could be an irritant if inhaled, and that was the last thing he needed right now. He reached the spot where Hikari had been standing.

"Hikari!" He said in a loud whisper.

"Yes?" She responded, sounding terrified.

"Come on!" Alex said, yanking her to the side. "And stay quiet."

No sooner than he pulled Hikari to the side did a fist-sized chunk on concrete shot past the space she had just occupied, pulverizing the mechanisms of the conveyor belt, which which screeched as the baggage on it came to a sudden halt.

**Break**

The moment she cut the security and Alex bolted toward the baggage claim, Anna was running She didn't run toward the fight; her skills didn't lie there. Instead, she grabbed her carry-on bag and began running for the ladies room.

She was there in several seconds. Miraculously, it was empty. She walked toward a stall at the end of the row, entered, locked the door behind her, sat down, and went to work.

She removed several items from her carry-on bag and began attaching them to the walls of the stall. An EMC projector that would conceal her location, a device to tap into the secure airport network, and an air freshener.

Within moments, she had a miniature mission control set up in the bathroom. Anna removed her laptop from her bag an opened it up, muttering prayers of thanks that the government had decided to splurge on nice equipment for this mission.

Once her laptop was active, she began selectively activating cameras in the cargo handling area and re-routing the feeds to her laptop. Frantically she searched for Alex in the mechanical labyrinth.

She spotted a cloud of smoke and some rubble. She figured she had the right place. Anna withdrew her headset and began speaking softly into the mic.

**Break**

Alexander's com-bead crackled to life in his ear.

"Alex, can you hear me?" Anna said.

"Loud and clear." Alex responded, louder than he would have liked. He had to speak fairly loudly for the bead to pick up his voice. Though the risk of giving away his location was unfortunate, the aid Anna could offer could turn the tide of the fight.

"What the hell is going on down there?" Anna demanded, "Are you in the smoke cloud?"

"Yeah. Forgive me if I don't say where."

"Alright." Anna said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Alex ducked, just as a cloud of gravel shot past him, just to his right. "Come on." He muttered, pulling Hikari behind him. The pair ran to the edge of the cloud, and Alex cursed under his breath and drew another smoke bomb from his pocket.

Hikari gasped and raised her arms as a silhouette resolved itself in the smoke. A shimmering wall of light appered in the air, outlined by the smoke. Alex whirled around, tossing the smoke grenade behind him as he raised his pistol.

As he reached a firing position, a torrent of rubble rose from the ground around the figure and shot toward the wall. It impacted with an almighty crash as countless chunks of concrete slammed into the barrier in rapid succession.

Hikari let out a tortured breath, but the torrent of rocks cut off quickly. Alex jerked on Hikari's arm, pulling her backwards into the new cloud of smoke.

"I can keep this up longer than you can, Hikari." The figure said. "You're only a B-rank, and you're power can't hurt me."

As Hikari opened her mouth, Alexander elbowed her. "Don't talk." He whispered. "She's trying to bait you."

The pair backpedaled into the smoke, the silhouette quickly fading from sight. Alex led Hikari around the end of a conveyor belt, putting some real cover between himself and the woman.

_What the hell is going on_? He thought, ducking under the conveyor belt and motioning for Hikari to do likewise. _How is any of this even possible?_

As he crawled along the conveyor belt, stone clanged on metal several times as the enemy fire her concerte shooting attack into the metal structure.

Alex reached a point where the smoke thinned out, and decided to risk a quick check of the area. He stuck his head up above the conveyor belt and looked around.

He spotted a figure in the smoke and raised his pistol. He fire twice, but was too agitated to aim properly and missed both times. Alexander ducked back down behind the conveyor belt and gestured to Hikari to begin crawling backwards.

It wasn't a moment too soon. Seconds after he cleared the datum, a massive chunk of rock and concrete struck the stopped conveyor belt, sending luggage tumbling down on Alex and Hikari. She cried out in pain as a suitcase struck her leg.

"Cover me!" He shouted. Honestly, Alexander wasn't sure what he was doing. Putting his life in the hands of a girl he had just met was hardly standard practice. Especially when the method in question involved what appered to be _magic_.

Alex bolted upright and began laying down suppressing fire with his handgun as he reached into his pocket with his other hand and drew another smoke grenade. He tossed the smoke bomb behind him, then pulled Hikari up to her feet and began running with her further back into the cargo area.

_Anna should have taken control of some of the cameras in here by now_. He thought as he ran. _That mean the smoke doesn't necessarily work to my advantage. What I need to do is get _her_ out of it, so we can track her._

The duo cleared the cloud of smoke and kept running into the guts of the cargo handling area. The clangs of stone on metal still came as the enemy used her ability, but less frequently now.

_Is she tiring out? _Alex wondered, as he popped his second-to last smoke grenade.

As the cloud billowed out of the device, he spoke. "Talk to me Anna. Where is this bitch?"

"She's coming towards you, maybe fifty yards toward the concourse." Anna responded, "whatever it is she's doing with the concrete, I've got it on film now, so whatever happens, we've technically accomplished the mission. Feel free to die now, if you'd like."

"Hilarious." Alexander muttered, withdrawing his last smoke bomb from his pocket. He pressed it into Hikari's hand. "You can take care of yourself, right?"

She nodded.

"Good. Start running. If she catches up with you, use this and that barrier thing to protect yourself."

"I don't know how much more I can do without hanging up." Hikari said. "I'm only a B-rank."

_I need to figure out what this stuff means. Hang up. Does that mean there's a limit on how much magic they can use?_

"Hey, this girl who's chasing us. Is she close to hanging up?"

"She has to be." Hikari said. "She's used an awful lot of magic."

_Then I might just have a chance._ Alexander thought. "Remember, avoid a fight if at all possible. We win if she doesn't kill us."

Hikari nodded, and Alexander ran toward the edge of the cloud of smoke, pistol held in both hands.

_I've fired ten shots so far_ he thought _so I've only got twenty rounds left, total. Gotta make them count._

Alex ran out of the cloud of smoke and back into the guts of the cargo area. At some point, the conveyor belts had stopped working, and thick black smoke, darker than the grey of Alexander's bombs, rose from several locations.

He rounded a corner and spotted a flash of his enemy running down a corridor parallel to his path. He bolted down the corridor after her, but in the seconds it took him to get there, she was already gone.

"She's stopping." Anna said, "I think she's looking around. Maybe she hears your footsteps?"

Alexander grunted and froze, listening. Trying to hear footsteps was a good idea; he should have thought of it earlier.

"She's coming back toward you, Alex." Anna said. "She's levitated a chunk of rock. How the hell is she even doing any of this?"

"I don't know." Alexander whispered.

He caught the sound to shoes on concrete coming towards him and back up around the corner. As the enemy came into sight, he took snap shot at her, then ducked back around his corner.

"I think you winged her." Anna said. "She's falling back, but not going down."

"Good." Alex said. He needed every advantage he could get.

"She's moving back towards the girl!" Anna said abruptly. "I don't know how she knows, but-"

"Got it." Alex stood up and advanced in a shooter's stance around the corner. The enemy was gone, but he wasn't letting down his guard. He advanced, moving toward the location where he had left Hikari. As he walked, he passed a splatter of blood on some machinery and smiled. He had winged her, and whatever she was, she could bleed. She wasn't invulnerable.

There was a scream.

"The girl just popped her smoke." Anna warned. "I don't think you have much time left."

"I know that!" Alex shouted.

"No need to yell- oh, I get it. She's backing off of that girl."

Alex crossed an open space and pressed himself into a wall, holding his pistol up. He only had four rounds left in his clip. Slowly, he removed the magazine from the weapons and placed it in his pocket, replacing it with the fresh one. _Ready to rock_ he thought, then immediately regretted his choice of words.

He whirled around, and pointed his gun down the next corridor just as the woman appered at the other end of it.

Rocks levitated around her. Alex lowered his handgun as the chunks of concrete shot toward him.

A single gunshot rang out, and a specially cast ceramic bullet left the barrel of Alexander's gun at just under four hundred meters per second. It shot at incredible speed across the space between the combatants passing the slower by much more massive rocks Alex's opponent had launched at him. It continued for a short distance across open space.

Then imbedded itself in the thigh of the woman.

She screamed and fell to her knees, causing Alexander's next bullet to fly harmlessly over her head. As he drew a bead on her for the next shot, a chuck on concrete stuck him in the breast, knocking him out of his stance and causing him to crumple in pain.

As Alexander recovered and prepared to fire another shot, wall of concrete shot into the air between him and his opponent with an ear-grating screech of stone sliding against stone. The wall of stone reached almost to the ceiling, then stopped growing.

Everything was silent for a moment, then there was a quiet hissing sound, like air escaping from a tire. Alexander took cover behind a corner, but nothing happened. After a moment, he stepped out into the corridor, and looked at the wall of stone.

It was shaped like a tulip bulb, bulging out slightly, then tapering toward the ceiling. Alexander listened for a moment, but the only sound was a pained whimpering.

_Why isn't she attacking?_ Alex wondered, advancing cautiously toward the bulb. _Did she run out of magic? Did she... what did Hikari say... hang up?_

Alex decided that, whatever happened, she was no longer a threat. Entombed in her bulb and without her magic, there was nothing that the woman could do to him. Alexander made his way past the bulb toward where he had left Hikari.

After a few moment, he reached the hallway where he had left her, and continued down the hallway. A few moments of walking later, he reached found her, hiding behind a crate.

"Its okay." He said. "She's not a threat anymore. Its safe to come out now."

"Did you kill her?" Hikari asked , looking up from where she crouched, standing up slowly.

"No. I think she hung up. What does that mean, anyway?"

"If we use too much magic, then our Harnest hangs up and she can't use any more magic for the rest of the day."

"You'll have to explain later. For now, we have to go."

"Nathan and Ishikawa are inbound." Anna said through his earpiece. "Hold your position."

"Roger that." Alex said, nodding. "My friends are coming, Hikari. You should be safe, for now."

"Thank you," She said, walking toward Alex. "I never heard your name."

"I'm Alexander." He said, turning toward her and extending his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

After a few moments, Nathan and Ishikawa arrived, wearing fine suits and holding handguns similar to the one Alex had used.

"Where's the enemy?" Nathan said. "We got here as soon as we could."

"She's not a problem anymore." Alex said. "I took care of her. Now we need to get as far away from here as possible."

Nathan looked down at Hikari. "I see you made a new friend."

"Yeah, about that. Is it possible we could take her with us? There's a group after her, and I think they're related to what we're here for."

"Fine." Nathan said. "We have an extra seat in the car, and there's plenty of room at the safehouse."

"Thanks." Alex said. "Now let's go."

**Break**

Anna sighed as the pair of agents reached Alex. He was safe, and so was the mission. Really, they could quit now. With what she had on her laptop, they could return to the CIA and confirm Alex's report.

She unleashed a data-eater virus on the airport systems to ensure no digital trace was left of the team, then began stripping the devices she had mounted off of the walls and putting them away. Then she returned her laptop to her bag and made her way onto the concourse.

A crowd was lingering, but it wasn't as thick as it had been when they had arrived. Apparently, then music she had piped into the speaker system had covered the sound of Alex's suppressed gunshots. No order to evacuate had yet come, given her tampering with the system, but that would come in a moment, as soon as the data-eater ran its course.

She made her way to the service entrance to the cargo handling area where Nathan and Ishikawa had entered after claiming their weapons from their bags. She leaned up against the wall and slowly slid down into a sitting position.

This mission had just gotten _interesting._


	3. Chapter 3

The door to the observatory opened, and Kuroha and Ryouta entered.

"Kana, we're home!" Kuroha shouted running across the floor of the telescope chamber toward where the paralyzed girl lay on her couch. "The ocean was so wonderful!"

"I'm glad for you." Kana's synthesizer said. "But I have to go to the bathroom."

"Oh, of course." The purple-haired girl said, picking up the paralyzed oracle.

Ryouta sighed as the girls walked out of the room, then walked over to the observatory computer. He logged into a Syrian proxy server and then logged into an online news service and began scanning the headlines for anything that might indicate something to do with Witches. It was a boring task, but it was important that-

_Huh_ he thought, as he looked at the headlines. _Narita Airport Bio Attack_. He clicked on the link and read more.

Apparently, an alert had been received that a bioweapon had been planted in the cargo handling area of the Narita International terminal, and the airport had to be evacuated while the police investigated. However, no details were given on the pathogens involved or the suspected groups.

_It could be a hoax_. He thought, _or..._

**Break**

The back door of the Toyota Highlander opened and Ishikawa shepherded Hikari into the vehicle, then jumped in behind her.

"Did anyone notice anything?" Nathan said, looking back from the driver's seat to look at the older Japanese-American Agent.

"No. I believe they assumed I was her father or grandfather." Ishikawa respond, buckling into his seat as Nathan pulled the SUV out of the curbside parking spot.

"Good. What about our faces?" Nathan asked, maneuvering onto the access road. "Are we compromised?"

Anna, who was sitting in the back seat, shook her head. "I don't think so. I took care of security, and everyone was paying attention to Hikari when Alex went backstage, and I chose a gate away from the crowd for you and Ishikawa."

"Excellent, excellent." Nathan turned toward Mark, who was sitting in the shotgun seat. "Now, I want to know everything about what happened back there, and why you chose to do what it did. First of all, why the hell did you go backstage?"

"I believed that Hikari's tampering with my luggage posed a threat to the operation, sir," Alexander said. "And that I had to prevent her from potentially revealing objects which could pose a threat our status as undercover agents."

"But the handgun was the only illegal object present, correct?" Nathan asked, not taking his eyes off the road to look at Alexander as he spoke. "And it was concealed sufficiently to pass a casual inspection. Why were you concerned?"

"I don't know, sir." Alex said, hanging his head. "I just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But it worked out, didn't it?"

"Yes, it did work out, but that doesn't excuse what you did. You endangered the mission, and that is unacceptable."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Um, if I may," Hikari piped up, "If Alexander hadn't come when he did, I would be dead now."

"That's true." Nathan said. "You saved a valuable piece of intelligence, Alex. And Success forgives many sins. However, remember your errors today, and learn from them. We may not be so fortunate a second time."

"I'm curious about this 'witch' business." Anna interjected. "I got a lot of it on camera, but I think that only gives me more questions. Hikari, who was that woman chasing you?

"She was another witch from the lab." Hikari said. "I don't know her name, but she had the power to control stone and concrete."

"What lab is this?" Nathan said. "I don't think dispatching assassins is standard Japanese Government practice. What's their affiliation?"

"A low-grade witch like wasn't allowed to know anything like that." Hikari said sadly. "I'm sorry. However, we had to avoid the military and the police when we were on the run, so I think they're working with the government."

"Great." Nathan muttered. "As if they're weren't already enough problems with this mission."

"It was pretty incredible what you did back there, though," Hikari said, looking at Alexander with stars in her eyes. "They told us at the lab that normal humans didn't stand a chance against witches."

Alexander looked down. "I got lucky." He said. "If she had fought smarter, I wouldn't have had a chance."

"No." Ishikawa said slowly, in his sharply accented English. "She fought as intelligently as she could. You were better. That's all there is to it."

"Thanks." Alex muttered. "So tell me more about this lab. What's going on with them?"

"I don't really know that much about the lab." Hikari said. "But they experimented on all of us at the lab. That's how we got our powers. Surgery and drugs. I-"

"That's not magic." Nathan murmured.

"- was ranked as a B-rank witch, but they determined that I was defective and decided to dispose of me. We escaped while in transit."

"So you don't know where the lab is." Anna said.

"Yes."

"So you said this witch I was fighting 'hung up'. What does that mean?"

"We have a device on the back of our necks." Hikari said, raising her hand to the nape of her neck. "When we use too much magic, or when a certain button on it is pressed, it pops out and we can't use any magic for the rest of the day."

"Seems like an important weakness." Alex said. "Why include something like that on something as important as a witch?"

"So they could control us." Hikari said gravely. "We were guinea pigs, not soldiers. There's a button on it that ejects it. Then we die."

Alexander looked at Nathan. He had explained what had happened at the Cargo Area of the airport, and he had expressed significant concern about the possibility of fighting additional witches. If they could be kill with the press of a button, that would make things slightly less hellishly difficult.

The car turned onto the Expressway and everyone was silent for a moment.

"Did you see what Alex did back there?" Anna said abruptly. "When the witch was all like _boom boom_ and then he was all like _pew pew_!"

"He was pretty amazing," Hikari said. "The way he used the smoke and everything."

"It was pretty cool." Anna said. "Not that I enjoyed that or anything."

**Break**

The car had arrived at the safe house, and dropped off the CIA team. Nathan and Ishikawa were greeting the landlady while Alex and Anna moved the luggage inside.

While Alex was moving his questionables bag up to his room, he spotted Hikari outside the freshly designated girl's room.

"Hey, Hikari." Alex said, putting down his bag.

"Oh, yes?" Hikari turned around and spotted Mark, then blushed. "I never got to properly thank you for saving me back there."

Alex shook his head. "Its fine."

"Still, thank you."

"I've been wondering, Hikari," Alex said slowly. "Why you've been so quick to trust us. Why is that?"

"You saved my life." She said. "If you wanted to hurt me, all you had to do was do nothing. Besides, it doesn't really matter who I trust."

"And why not?"

"Because I'll be dead in a week."

"What do you mean?" Alexander demanded, slamming his hand into the wall. "How can you possibly know that? Are you sick?"

"No. We witches need to take a certain pill called a death suppressant every day, or we die." Hikari said sadly.

"Wait, what?"

"If we don't take the pill, for thirty hours, our skin splits and we start to bleed. After a few hours more than that, then we..." She choked up. "Melt."

"Are you running out?" Alexander asked, trying to force the image of a person melting out of his head.

"Yes." Hikari muttered. "I have seven pills left."

"That's... that's terrible." Alex said. "Is there anything we can-" An idea crossed his mind. "Could you show me one of the pills?"

Hikari reached into her pocket and pulled out a single pill in a blister pack. The letters DR623G were stamped on the packaging in bold black ink.

_Could that be a drug identification code?_ Alex thought, looking at the characters. "Show me another."

She did. The letters were identical.

"That's probably a drug identification code." Alex said, showing Hikari the lettering.

He started walking toward the door to the girl's room. "If we-"

He walked into a fist.

"You can stay out there, pervert." Anna said. "What is so important that it requires you violate all boundaries of decent behavior to-"

"Hikari is going to die if we don't get a certain pill in the next week." Alex said. "We need you to find the drug code. Can you look up something without it being traceable back here?"

"Who the hell do you think I am?" Anna said. "Of course I can. What's the code?"

"DR623G."

"I'll see what I can find."

**Break**

"To conclude," Anna said, "The Death Suppressant drug is manufactured at the Dresden Pharmaceuticals Takayama facility."

"And what do you want to do about it?" Nathan said, raising an eyebrow. "There was just a break-in at the factory, so they'll be on guard. There will be guards, security systems, cameras, and so forth."

The group of spies, plus Hikari, sat in a private room in the basement of their house. They were seated after the local fashion, on cushions around a table. Anna stood in front of the assembled group next to a projector screen displaying the findings on her search.

"We're talking about her life here." Alex said. "Isn't there something we could do?"

"I think there's something we _could_ do." Nathan said. "We could shout that the sky is falling and try to get the U.S. to declare war on Japan and invade, and hope that the factory falls into our hands before your friend melts."

"Obviously that isn't practical." Ishikawa said. "And there would be moral problems with that. But what could we do?"

"What about a Special Forces raid." Alex said. "That's a discreet solution, and it's hardly as big a commitment as an invasion."

"The CIA has worked with SOCOM in the past." Anna said. "And that would solve a lot of the problems of an invasion, as if that was ever a reasonable option."

"There are all kinds of ways a small, elite team could get the drugs, once they were on the ground." Alex said. "And they wouldn't draw the sort of attention that any other option would."

"But what could motivate President Viktor to launch a commando raid on an allied country?" Nathan said. "It would be a very risky proposition."

"It's not as if it's entirely without precedent." Ishikawa said. "The U.S. and Pakistan were technically allies during the Bin Laden raid."

"That was one thing and this is another." Nathan declared. "Bin Laden was a high-value target, and everyone knew that the Pakistanis were going behind our backs. This is one of our strongest allies, and we'd be going in on a whim to save the life of one young woman."

"Not one young woman." Ishikawa rebutted. "One witch. Presently the only one in the possession of the United States Government."

"Fine." Nathan said. "We needed to get our shipment of heavy weapons in somehow, anyway. I'll make the call."

"Thank you." Hikari said softly.

**Break**

Dominic Winters had been assigned general oversight of operation Blazing Summer. At present, he had received confirmation that his team had landed successfully in Japan and, despite some altercations, was still prepared to go ahead with the mission. He was now about to review the first data dump they sent him on the status of their mission.

Winters logged into the secure server and opened the satellite transmission file from the field team. He had people to look at things like this, of course, but on the few field missions he had been involved with, he had liked to review as much of the core raw data as he practically could in order to get a feel for what was really happening.

The first item in the transmission packet was a written report, with attached video files. He opened it and began to read.

..._Everything in the Far East Report is true... Encountered a magic user at the airport... Engaged hostile terrakinetic magic user... Taken possibly friendly magic user into custody... Currently residing with the Advanced Command team... Interrogation revealed existence of 'Lab' responsible for creation of magic users... Evidence of significant ties to Japanese Government..._

Then he got to the bottom of the report.

_To conclude, the captured magic user is chronically dependent on a specific medication, of which she currently possess a week's supply. Further medication may be found at the Dresden Pharmaceuticals Takayama facility. However, due to suspected connections between Dresden and the unknown 'Lab' group, diplomatic approaches are judged as unlikely to procure additional medication, and likely to reveal our possession of critical information of possibly hostile groups._

Winters knew what was coming next.

_It is thus the recommendation of this officer that an elite team be assembled on short notice to raid the facility and acquire the drug. The captive magic user is a valuable asset, and having her melt down in a week's time would severely limit the intelligence that could be gathered from her. In addition, she serves as evidence that something is occurring here. Additional evidence is enclosed._

_Nathan Hunter._

Winter's picked up the phone.

**Break**

President Viktor Justinian picked up the phone. The call was from the emergency hotline from Langley, so he knew it was almost certainly something serious. _And just when things were starting to quiet down_ he thought.

"Hello?" He said. There were only a few people with permission to use this line, limiting who could be on the other end.

"Mr. President?" An urgent voice said. "This is Dominic Winters."

"Ah, Dominic. How have you been?" The president asked. "Doing well, I hope."

"No isn't the time to chat, sir. We have a situation."

Viktor sat up straight in his chair. "What is it? Terrorists? I knew they'd been too quiet lately. We've got to-"

"Not terrorists, sir." Winters said. "Remember operation Blazing Summer?"

"Yes."

"Well, it found what it was looking for."

"No. Seriously?"

"The advance team found two magic users at the airport. The details are still a bit sketchy, but they neutralized one and took another into custody, apparently willingly. They're interrogating her now, and they discovered that all of these 'witches' are chronically dependent on a certain medication, and the witch they captured is almost out."

The president raised an eyebrow. "I assume getting more isn't as simple as a visit to the local pharmacy?"

"Well, it is and it isn't." Winters said. "Dresden Pharmaceuticals produces the drug off the record for the organization that created the magic users, and we've sourced the drug to one specific factory."

"And you want to go in and grab some?" The president asked.

"Essentially."

"Wait a sec. I'll bring General Ochoa into the call."

There was a brief pause as the commander of SOCOM was connected.

"What is it?" The General said, the moment the call went through. The commander of SOCOM was a gruff Hispanic man, who towered over most others and dearly loved crushing the enemies of his county.

"We have a situation." Winters began, and he proceeded to detail the events that had led up to the call.

"So you want me to send my boys in, on a week's notice, to an allied country, and raid a private facility to steal a drug so a witch doesn't melt." Ochoa said. "Do I have that right?"\

"Essentially." Winters said.

"It could be done. Ochoa muttered. "I have a squad of SEALs on standby in Yokosuka. We have a fast attack boat in the area with a SEAL delivery vehicle, and I suppose we could-"

"Ochoa, I haven't approved the mission yet." Viktor said. "I just wanted to get your opinion on the feasibility of it."

"It could be done sir. As I said, I have teams on standby that could do it. And I'd bet on SEALs against private security any day of the week. However, it could be risky. We are attacking an ally, after all."

"I understand that." The president responded. "And that is a risk I'm willing to take. However, we need to decide if we go ahead with this mission."

"I don't want to sound like I'm planning a coup, but the fewer people know, the better." Winters added. "With something like this, complete secrecy is critical."

"Agreed." The president shook his head. "We can't afford to take this before congress. That would let the cat out of the bag in a hurry."

"So, are we going to move forward with this?" Winters asked.

"I don't know. The president said. "I'm just not sure that we stand to gain enough from this operation to justify the potential risks. Couldn't we just put this witch on a flight back to the states and test her until she runs out of medicine? I don't mean to sound heartless, but this is just one life. We could lose a dozen is this mission goes wrong, not to mention the potential risk of alienating the Japanese."

"Sir, there is very little we know about these witches. Frankly, our scientists wouldn't know where to start. I don't think they could uncover much in a week." Winters closed his eyes. "Plus, she may be useful to the advance team. Those setups are always fragile, but she possesses the power to create what Agent Knight described as 'energy barriers'. If this goes south, they may need her."

"Out of the question." Ochoa said. "She's a civilian, and a foreign national. We can't make her fight in one of our battles. Plus, she's untrained. She may well do more harm than good in a gun battle. On top of that, we don't even know if she'll cooperate."

"Be that as it may, other witches escaped with her. If we secure the supply of Death Suppressants, we could use them to buy the loyalty of the witch we already have, as well as others."

"Death Suppressants?" Ochoa asked.

"The term for the medicine the witches use. If they don't take it, they slowly melt over the course of about ten hours." Winters said clinically. "First, the witch develops skin lesions, which begin bleeding, and then she goes into massive organ failure. After that, she undergoes massive cellular decomposition and eventually melts."

Viktor fought off a sudden surge of nausea. "Why do you need to describe the effects of the lack of the pill? We know that-"

"And the witches also have a device on the backs of their necks, with three buttons on it. When you press one, they lose the ability to use magic. When-"

"That could be useful." Ochoa interjected.

"When you press the second button, it ejects the device, and the witch dies."

"This seems rather irrelevant." The president said. "We are discussing the topic of the-"

"But she doesn't just die." Winters said. "She melts. Just like what happens when she runs out of medicine, but much faster. I'd imagine that it has to do with massive cellular collapse, but either way, it's pretty graphic. Bones in a puddle of-"

"Please excuse me for a moment." The president said. A few moments passed. Winters was about to say something to Ochoa when Viktor continued, "I'm back."

"So, will you approve the mission?" Winters asked. "Don't make me give my speech about expanding the frontiers of human knowledge. Just make this easier for both of us."

"Fine." The president said. "In any case, I think it might be worth it, for the intelligence benefit."

"Then I will begin planning the operation." Ochoa said. "We are already on a short schedule, and I need to make some calls. Good bye."

Ochoa left the call.

"And just between us," Viktor said. "I don't think I could let a girl melt like that. But Dominic?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Never do that again."

**Break**

Philip Lee stepped off the plane and onto the airstrip at Fleet Activities Yokosuka. He was a Navy SEAL, fresh out of Task Group Level Training. In Individual Specialty Training he had specialized in Advanced Close Quarters Battle and Advanced Demolitions, and been assigned to SEAL Team Twelve, which was forward deployed in Yokosuka.

He was a tall man with short brown hair, and bright blue eyes. He was, of course, well-muscled, but most of it was lean muscle, and he moved with a lithe grace. Philip carried a heavy back loaded with his various personal effects as he stepped onto the tarmac and looked around.

As the plane began to taxi away, he spotted a man in fatigues walking toward him.

"Hey, new guy!" The man shouted, waving an arm, "You're Philip Lee, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Philip responded. "Who are you?"

"I'm Gabriel Nichols." The man said, as he stopped next to Philip and extended a hand. "Pleased to meet you. You're the new SEAL, right?"

"Yeah." Philip said, shaking Gabriel's hand.

"Sargent Michael ordered me to, and I quote, 'go meet the new guy'. So here I am."

"Interesting. So where am I supposed to go?"

"To the SEAL Cave."

**Break**

"You know, putting us underground was a nice touch." Philip said, walking into the partially buried concrete bunker that housed the Forward-deployed SEAL team. "Gives it a certain ambiance."

"I know what you mean." Gabriel replied, "But the name is kind of lame. I'm not sure who came up with it."

"Gabriel! You're back!"

Philip turned toward the speaker. He was even taller than Philip, and his body was covered in rippling muscles under the thin t-shirt he wore. He had brown hair and a jovial expression on his face.

"I'm back." Gabriel agreed. "I bought the new guy."

The man looked at Philip. "So you're our new breacher, eh? I'm John Stafford." He paused for a moment. "I," he said, in a deeper voice, "am heavy weapons guy."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I don't think that's funny to anyone else."

"Sure it is." John shot back.

"He's incorrigible." Gabriel said, turning toward Philip. "Also, a tip about John. For him, the Cold War never ended, and neither did Vietnam or Korea. Or WWII. Or the Revolutionary War. So be careful around him."

"I'm perfectly stable." John protested. "Sargent Michael made me undergo extra psych testing."

Gabriel sighed. "Unfortunately, he passed."

Philip looked around. The teammates he had met so far seemed to have a rather interesting dynamic. He wondered what Gabriel's comment meant.

"Anyway," John said. "Let's take the new guy down to the kill house. Put his through his paces."

**Break**

"Breaching!" Philip shouted, and smashed his shoulder through the door. The hinges holding up the heavy slab of wood gave way, and he charged into the room behind the falling door, assault carbine held ready.

The moment his line of sight was clear, he spotted a black silhouette behind a desk. He fired, placing two rounds in the chest and one in the head of the dummy. He stepped to the side to allow his imaginary squadmates to enter, then swept the room for further threats.

Another dummy popped up in corner, and Philip shot it in the head, dropping it instantly.

As he advanced into the room, heart pounding and mind running on overdrive, three more silhouettes popped up in the doorway. He hosed fire toward them, hitting one twice and one once, and absolutely shredding the third. As his assault carbine clicked empty, he dropped the long gun into his combat harness and drew his sidearm, a .45 caliber pistol. He fired at the target he had only hit once and tapped it twice more, then put an extra round into the other target.

Philip took cover behind the now empty desk and began to reload his carbine. He slid a fresh magazine into the weapon and advanced toward the door out of the room. He took cover behind the doorframe, then burst out through the door, carbine at the ready.

No new targets presented themselves, so he moved down the hallway toward the next door in line and examined it.

The door was of much sturdier construction that the previous one, and would not open as easily. Philip reached into his pouch and removed a (simulated) shaped charge device and placed it on the door, over the deadbolt. He took a step back, holding the wires leading to the explosive in his hand.

"Breaching!" He shouted, and pressed the fire button.

There was a loud crack as a blasting cap in the device detonated and a sudden surge of smoke. Philip kicked the door open and charged in, laying down suppressive fire as he did so.

There were three silhouettes in the room. One went down the moment he opened fire, and a hole appeared in another. Philip double tapped the unwounded target, then dropped the last one standing and advanced into the room.

**Break**

"So what did you set the parameters to?" John said, looking at Gabriel with an incredulous look on his face.

The two men were standing in the control and observation room of the kill house in the Yokosuka SEAL cave. At present, they were watching Philip make his way through a series of rooms designed to test the skills of even an elite operator to the limit.

"I set them to full combat realistic." Gabriel said. "He's fighting the kill house the way it's meant to be played."

"Wow. That kid's gonna go places." John said, as Philip breached another door and swiftly dispatched the simulated enemy combatants.

Gabriel looked down at his watch. "We've got that meeting soon."

"What do you think that it's about?"

"I doubt it's a mission briefing." Gabriel said. "Everything has seemed quiet lately."

"I know. It's probably just some routine thing."

"Even so," Gabriel muttered. "I wonder why they asked us not to talk about it."

"Maybe it is a mission. Some kind of pre-emptive thing."

Gabriel stepped up to the microphone for speaking into the kill house. "That's enough, newbie. We've got a meeting, and you're invited."

**Break**

The trio of SEALs stood outside the door to the briefing room, the two older operators discussing past missions with Philip.

"So then the damn terrorist realizes that I'm holding a _Light machine gun_." John said, gesturing animatedly. "And he says something, and I absolutely light him up. The look on his face was priceless."

"Hilarious." Gabriel said, stepping toward the door. "Anyway, it's time for the meeting."

"Fine." John said. "Be that way."

The trio walked into the lecture room. It was a small chamber designed to seat most of a platoon, with seats arranged in concentric semicircles facing a podium on an elevated platform. The trio took their seats near the front of the room and waited.

Over the course of the next few minutes, four more men filtered into the room and sat down. At precisely the time the meeting was scheduled to start, one of them stood up and walked up to the podium. He cleared his throat, then began to speak.

"Gentlemen. You have been called here today for a very special mission. Now, I know you've all heard that before."

There was a smattering of laughter from the assembled operators.

"In any case, for today's operation, we need to raid a certain factory and steal drugs to prevent an allied witch from melting."

Silence reigned over the room for a moment, and then the speaker continued.

"Now, I know most of you will be responding with something in the neighborhood of 'are you shitting me?' This is expected. However, this is not a joke. A CIA team, part of an operation called Blazing Summer, has discovered that an organization operating within Japan, with the possible cooperation of the Government, has produced a significant number of individuals with superhuman powers."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then John raised his hand. "Does this mean that the target of this operation is within the borders of Japan?"

"Correct." The speaker said. "We are raiding the Dresden Pharmaceuticals Takayama facility." An image of a pill in a blister pack appeared on the screen behind him. "Our objective is to secure as many of these pills as possible. They are essential to the survival of magic users, and thus to our attempts to figuring out what the _fuck_ is going on here."

He looked around the room before continuing. "Now, it is possible that we may encounter enemy magicians during the course of this operation. In the event that this occurs, there are a few things you need to know. First of all, all magic users have a device on the back of their necks essential to their survival. If this device is removed, they die. There is a button on the bottom left of this device that ejects it from their body, terminating them."

There was a brief pause, then Gabriel spoke up. "What sort of things can these magicians do?"

"We aren't entirely sure." The speaker said. "So it is critical that you stay on your toes at all times. However, the magic user currently in our custody is a young Japanese woman, with the ability to create force fields. From her testimony, the other magic users will be girls in her age range, with a wide variety of powers." He smiled. "But they all die to bullets."

Philip felt some of the tension leave his body. For a moment, he was concerned that these magicians would be invisible juggernauts, able to absorb everything the SEAL squad could throw at them while they ripped the operators apart with mystic powers."

"Now," The speaker said. "This is what we're going to do."


	4. Chapter 4

Off the Coast of Japan, on a desolate stretch of beach somewhere on the western coast of Japan, the ocean churned. A disturbance appeared in the water, which quickly resolved itself into a jet-black rectangular surface, slick with seawater. The waves washed over the rectangle, but it continued to rise out of the ocean, resolving itself into a boxy vehicle swiftly emerging from the ocean.

The box began to move toward shore, a wake appearing behind it. As it entered shallower water, a series of wheels on the bottom of the vehicle lowered down and began to spin against the compacted, rocky sand, pushing the vehicle out of the water and up the beach, to a place where only a few waves reached.

The Advanced SEAL Delivery System II vehicle opened, revealing the dimly lit interior of the craft.

A figure dressed all in black sprang out of the vehicle as a wave receded, sweeping the beach with his AK-47 assault rifle. He was dressed in the latest Chinese articulated body armor, and carried a wide range of devices on his person.

Moments after Sergeant Michael exited the craft, Philip followed. He scanned his surroundings, but no one was there, just as planned.

The eight other SEALs on the mission quickly disembarked, two pairs of them carrying crates of heavy weapons between them. The rest of the elite operators moved to secure the beach as the ASDS II slid back beneath the waves.

The site for this portion of the mission had been chosen well. There were no houses along the shoreline, only a single lonely road, which had been strategically blocked by CIA paramilitary agents felling trees where the road dipped further inland. It had been confirmed by aircraft that no one was walking the beach for miles in either direction, and the rising tide would soon wipe away the footprints of the SEALs.

The operators moved into two single-file lines as they moved up the beach and out of the tide zone, the last man in each column strategically shuffling his feet to scuff up the trail left by the men ahead of him.

Up the beach, behind the sand dunes separating the road from the beach, two vehicles waited. They were black vans, procured by Delta Force agents of Asian extraction who had been infiltrated prior to the mission.

The SEALs advanced up the beach, not braking formation until they reached the waiting vans. The team carrying the crate of heavy weapons loaded one through the tailgate of each vehicle while the other SEALs loaded onto the vehicles via the side doors.

When the last of the five men loading into each vehicle was aboard, the doors slammed shut, and the vehicles slowly began to drive into the darkness, headlights sole spots of light on the lonely beach road.

In all, mere moments had passed since the ASDS II had first breached the surface of the ocean. The vans drove out of sight of the stretch of beach, and once more all was quiet.

**Break**

"You know." John said. "They really don't make these seats for guys in body armor. They really should."

Gabriel sighed. "That doesn't make any sense. Why in the world would they do that?"

"Just think about it. The reasons should be obvious."

The team of SEALs sat in the back of the van, all cradling various weapons. Philip, Gabriel, and Sergeant Michael all carried AKs. John carried an M60 light machine gun and boxes of ammunition for it. All the weapons used 7.62mm cartridges, and the ammunition they were issued had been prepared such that it could be used by any of the weapons the squad possessed. It was a small thing, but sometimes those were the difference between victory and defeat.

And given the risks if this mission failed, defeat was not an option, to an even greater extent than normal. If the team was caught, it could destroy diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Japan, crippling America's power in the Far East.

Sergeant Michael pulled something out from under his seat. It was a box of wet wipes. He one out of the box and began wiping down the boots of his armor.

"Never took you for the neat freak type, Sergeant." John said.

Michael rolled his eyes. "That's not it. Don't you think it just might be a little odd if beach sand was found in a factory miles inland? Given what they can do today, they might even be able to use it to track down which beach we came ashore on. And then if they look at their records of where the Anchorage has been on patrol, they might just put two and two together and figure us out."

"I see." John said. "Then pass me one of those when you're done."

The Sergeant smiled and passed the box.

Philip took a wipe and began cleaning off his boots, being sure to get between the treads where sand had lodged.

"So, gentlemen, let's review the plan." Michael said. "The computer people will drop some of the security of the facility, and the CIA team will cut the communions to the factory, then we move in. Bravo Section will advance to the front gate and enter, while we enter through the back door. Assuming the maps of the factory we found are correct, we then advance to the storage room near the center of the facility. The drugs should be there, and we have the explosives to recover them if necessary."

"What if the blueprints aren't accurate?" Philip asked.

"Then we advance through the facility and attempt to capture a prisoner to determine where the drugs are located."

"I see." Philip said. "What sort of opposition are we expecting?"

"There should be guards at the facility, but nothing we can't handle. They just had a break-in close to two weeks ago, so expect them to be on a higher alert status than usual. However, they weren't expecting to have to deal with us."

"Exactly." Gabriel said. "They should be poorly armed and unarmored, but they'll know the terrain and have the advantage of numbers. Stay on guard."

**Break**

"So," Kazumi said. "What do you want to do now, Ryouta?"

"Don't even try, Kazumi." Ryouta said, exasperated.

The girls were laying out futons in the observatory and preparing to go to bed. It had been a late night of stargazing, and everyone was tired. Kuroha was in the process of tucking Kana into her futon, and Kotori was already lying down.

Kana gasped.

"I had a forecast!" Kana's voice synthesizer said.

"What was it?" Kuroha asked, a shocked expression on her face. "Who's going to die?"

"A lot of people are going to die. Violently." Kana said.

"Where?" Kazumi asked.

"At the Dresden Pharmaceuticals facility in Takayama." Kana said. "The one you raided for the drugs a few weeks ago."

"How are they going to die?" Ryouta asked, concern carved into his face. "Is it some kind of Witch experiment?"

"No, they're going to be shot!" Kana said. "I saw soldiers raiding the facility."

"Soldiers? Were they JSDF?"

"I couldn't tell." Kana said. There was no tone in her voice, but if there was, Ryouta imagined that she would sound annoyed. "They were wearing black body armor and nothing else. No insignias."

Ryouta frowned. "When will this happen."

"In fifteen minutes." Kana said.

"There's no way we could get there in time." Ryouta said, still frowning. "And that's assuming that we even wanted to."

"If the facility is being raided, I might be able to do something to help whoever's attacking, or at least see what's going on." Kazumi said, walking over to the observatory computer and sitting down.

"Are we sure we want to do that, though?" Ryouta asked, "What about when we run out of drugs? What if we need to get more from there."

"That'll never work." Kazumi said, booting up the computer. "They've doubled the security since our raid. The facility is guarded by fifty men!"

Then where are we going to get more pills? Ryouta though. "If you do something to disrupt their security, can it be traced back here?"

"Of course not." Kazumi said, reaching forward and picking up two cables. "I took down their security once before, didn't I?"

"I suppose."

Kazumi plugged the cables into a pair of specially designed ports on the back of her harnest and activated her magic. Her skin began to glow slightly, and digital script floated in the air around her.

After a few tense moments, she spoke. "I'm in."

Ryouta was so focused on watching Kazumi work, he didn't notice Kuroha walking up behind him. "Ryouta, what's happening?" She asked, laying her hand on his shoulder..

"Kazumi is trying to do something to help the people raiding the Takayama factory." He said, placing his hand over hers.

Kuroha shook her head. "That's not what I mean. These soldiers raiding the facility, what could they be doing? What is going on? The lab is supposed to be a secret."

"I don't know." Ryouta answered. "Given the nature of the situation, either they're terrorists or Special Forces, most likely. I've read a few books on both. If Kazumi can get us a visual feed, then I might be able to identify them."

Kotori walked over and stood next to Ryouta and Kuroha. "I could switch places with someone near the factory and see what's going on."

"Then how would you get back?" Ryouta said, raising an eyebrow. "Plus, what would we do with the person you switched places with? Besides, you might get caught in the crossfire."

"Oh." Kotori said, sounding crestfallen. "I thought I could help."

"If you want to help, Kotori, get me a drink." Kana said.

"Oh, ok." Kotori rushed out of the room and down the stairs to the bottom floor of the observatory.

"Geez." Kana said. "She's so airheaded sometimes."

Kazumi's eyes widened. "There's a cyberattack on the Dresden factory! A big one! It's originating in..." She narrowed her eyes, "China. That's odd."

"What would the Chinese want with Dresden Pharmaceuticals?" Ryouta muttered, placing his hand on his chin.

"It's not necessarily the Chinese." Kazumi said, not looking away from her computer. "The attack could be directed remotely and simply connected to the internet through a node in China. It could be anyone.

**Break**

The vans came to a halt, and the SEALs began to disembark.

Philip hopped out of the van behind Sergeant Michael, glad for the chance to stretch his legs. He held his rifle to his shoulder and looked around.

The vans had stopped just off-road in a forested area near the facility. They were surrounded by trees on all sides, and a fence topped by barbed wire was visible at the top of a rise near the road.

The back doors of the vans opened, and the SEALs began claiming heavy weapons from the crate. Philip was passed a pack of demolitions and blasting equipment. He began breaking down the pack and distributing it over the various straps provide on his armor. He was carrying a lot of explosives, and it was heavy, but he was well trained, and hopefully would be able to place some of the explosives soon.

"Alright," Sergeant Michael said, waving his arm forward. "Let's move out."

The SEALs walked forward and climbed the hill. At the top, two men with bolt cutters moved forward and began cutting a hole in the fence. The powerful tools made short work of the widely-spaced chain-link fence, and the operators advanced.

They walked through the the forest in twos, each pair covering the others. They moved quietly but quickly, making minimal noise as they moved through the undergrowth. After a few minutes of walking, they came to a short decline in the ground, beyond which was the factory.

It was a massive, block-like building, topped by a radio array adorned with blinking red lights. The SEALs stopped just short of the tree line, fanning out into a loose formation.

"Prepare to move on my signal." Michael said, as the rest of the squad fell into formation. He held up three fingers, then two, then one. He waved forward.

The SEALs charged forward, the squad splitting into two sections as it advanced. They had chosen their approach vector based on the shortest distances in the open to their objectives, but moving through open space was always risky.

As he ran, Philip passed several cameras, their glassy eyes rendered blind by the technological attack launched on the factory. It was fortunate that the cyber attack had been successful, or else the mission would have to be scrubbed, and all the risk they had taken so far would be for nothing.

The group ran through the disabled security zones of the factory, weapons at the ready. It was unfortunate, but at this point, they could afford no resistance. Anyone who came out with their hands up might be taken prisoner and clubbed unconscious, but any hint of resistance would be met with a hail of gunfire. They couldn't afford any clear witnesses, and any person at the facility could potentially be a magic user. How could they take any chances when anyone here could potentially cut the entire squad to ribbons with a simple act of will?

Not that the facts made the prospect any easier for Philip to stomach.

Though they had chosen the space that offered the shortest distance to the objectives, Alpha Section had further to go than Bravo Section. Philip felt a brief flash of jealousy as the Bravo Section SEALs peeled off from his unit to run to their objective.

His squad continued to their objective, one of the many emergency personnel exits cut into the solid exterior wall of the factory. Alpha Section reached their objective a good fifteen or twenty seconds after Bravo Section.

As the section piled into the alcove surrounding the door, Sergeant Michael took a look at the heavy steel door set into the concrete wall.

"Philip, remove that from my world." He said, gesturing the new member of the team forward.

Based on the intel they had, the doors would still be physically locked when the team arrived, and would probably be too strong to batter down expediently. Therefore, explosive entry was required.

Philip was already moving into position. He carried PVV-5A Plastic Explosives, a Russian plastic explosive that commonly found its way into the hands of the enemies of the West. The chemical markers in the explosive had been fudged to make the explosive hard to source, but there were only so many plants mixing PVV-5A, and when you looked at who owned them... Certain inferences became very easy to draw.

Once at the door, Philip examined the structure. The door was attached to the wall by a pair of sturdy hinges, and a large digital lock covered the knob. The cyber attack would have rendered the lock temporarily useless, but most devices of that type defaulted to locking when they were compromised.

The hinges were likely very resilient, but given that this wasn't a bank vault, were unlikely to possess their own locking mechanisms, so Philip opted to ignore them. He placed a small amount of explosive on the knob, under the digital lock, followed by a copper cone to focus the blast.

He waved the team back as he placed a blasting cap into the explosive mixture, then took a few steps backwards himself. Philip took cover behind the corner separating the alcove from the field outside the factory. The heavy concrete would provide some protection from the blast, and given the small amount of explosives he was using, distance would do the rest.

"Firing," Philip muttered, and pressed the button on the detonator.

For a moment, nothing happened, just long enough to make Philip wonder if he had done something wrong. Then there was a loud cracking sound, and a concussion washed over Philip and the rest of the section, and a wave of dust billowed out from the alcove.

The moment the blast was clear, Sergeant Michael waved John forward into the cloud of dust. The rest of the section followed.

When Philip was inside, he watched as the door slowly swung open from the recoil from the blast wave, a neat hole cut in it where the knob and lock had been.

"Nice work." John said, tilting his head toward Philip. "Bangman?"

"To on the nose." Gabriel responded. "Plus, there are the unfortunate implications."

"Fine." John said.

"Let's get moving." Michael said. "Everyone and their mother heard that explosion."

Philip took the point position moving through the door, and the rest of the section followed.

"Elevator to Hell," Gabriel muttered, "going down."

The section moved into the space beyond the blown door. It appeared to be some form of manufacturing space, confirming the notion that they had opened an emergency exit. The SEALs fanned out as they entered, their guns covering all angles of the spaces.

The door was located in a corner, with a solid concrete wall on one side and a long row of pipes and machines parallel to the wall, forming a long row down which the team could advance.

_We won't want to split up any further. _Philip though, _which means..._

"Move to the next row over and advance." Michael ordered, gesturing.

The SEAL team moved past the long row of equipment and into a long open space formed by two such walls. They began to advance down the row, Nathan at point, with Michael and John behind him, and the two remaining SEALs covering either side. It was an optimum formation for a sub-optimal situation, making the best usage of the available cover.

As the section advanced down the row, the sound of a door bursting open echoed through the chamber, followed by short, angry shouts in Japanese.

"Cover the exit." On said, or so Philip believed. His Japanese skills were somewhat sub-par, and he was still working up to full fluency when the order for the raid came down.

"Got it," came the response.

Philip made a beeline for the nearest wall of the corridor and raised his rifle. He wasn't a moment too soon. A man came into sight his features indistinct in the dim light of the factory interior. He was wearing the uniform of a security guard, complete with a emblem on his shoulder, but he carried a distinctly non-standard long gun with a sickle clip.

The man spotted the SEALs, shouted, and began to turn, raising his rifle as he did so.

Philip was faster.

With reflexes born of hundreds of hours of breacher training, he snapped his gun into firing position and let off a short, three round burst.

The first bullet went wide, but the second two were on target and the security guard, who wasn't armored nearly as heavily as the SEALs, went down screaming.

The section continued to advance, taking up cover positions at the edge of the row, the wall of machinery between them and any potential enemies.

Michael waved John forward, and he rounded the corner, M60 at the ready. Philip followed him, rifle at his shoulder.

There were three guards standing beyond the corner, guns at the ready, apparently preparing to advance down the row adjacent to the one the SEALs had used. They began to turn to engage the intruders, but John never gave them the chance. He opened up with his heavy gun, sweeping a stream of projectiles across the group.

"DEMOCRACY, you third world Commie bastards!" He shouted as the last of the guards went down and he raised his gun.

Philip continued around the corner and spotted a fifth security guard, who was just turning around and spotting the bodies of his fallen comrades. Not giving him a chance to raise his gun, Philip drew a quick bead and fired a short burst, dropping the man in a spray of blood.

_I just killed a man_ Philip thought as he reloaded his gun. _I just _killed _someone_.

As the new magazine clicked home, Philp shook himself out of his brief reprieve. There would be more than enough time to think about what he had just done on the ride back to the submarine. For now, he had a mission to finish.

As the rest of the squad rounded the corner and took up positions, Gabriel leaned toward John.

"By the way," he muttered, not taking his eyes off his designated sector, "None of that was accurate.

The team of SEALs advanced to the inner door and took up positions around it, rifles at their shoulders. The inner doors weren't supposed to need to be blown open, but there was no telling what the intel people would have screwed up.

Philip approached the door carefully, and placed his gloved hand on the knob. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he turned the knob, then slammed the door open, jumping to the side as he did so to avoid the expected hail of gunfire.

None came.

With John covering him with his heavy gun, Philip advanced into the room beyond the door. It was a long corridor, with disturbingly little cover down its length. He advanced into it cautiously, with Thomas O'Malley, the fifth member of the section advancing behind him.

The section moved down the corridor, their specially designed boots barely making any sound as they walked. At the end of the hallway, they took up positions once more.

"How far is it to the mission objective, Sarge?" John said, leveling his machine gun at the door.

"There should be another manufacturing space on the other side of this door," the Sergeant said, "And then a strongbox room with the drugs in it. That's where we're meeting up with Bravo Section."

John nodded. "And that's where we use the explosives, right?"

"Yeah, we need to save some to use there." Philip said. "The drugs we need could be in a safe or strongbox."

"Let's breach this door." The sergeant said. "Breacher up."

Philip stepped up to the door and eyed it warily. It appeared to open inward, so that would limit his vision as he entered. He took a deep breath and readied himself to storm the room.

He flung the door open and charged in. There was one guard standing in the room, holding his rifle down, facing away from the door.

"What was that?" The guard said. "The intruders are where? Why-"

That was all he said as Philip dropped his rifle into his harness, drew his combat knife, and charged forward. The man started to turn around and open his mouth as Philip's first knife thrust took him in the lower chest.

The guard doubled up in pain and began to collapse as Philip hit him. Philip shoved his armored forearm into the man's mouth as he struck and bore him toward the floor, ensuring that he couldn't cry out.

As they hit the ground, the guard lashed out, knocking Philip's knife away from him. The rifle jammed into his chest, causing Philip to grunt in pain as he struggled with the guard. The man put up a fight, but Philip wrapped his other arm around the man's throat and began to choke him.

The pair of men tussled on the ground, but as they fought, the wound and lack of air steadily weakened the guard, and Philip quickly overcame him.

The guard stopped moving as the rest of the SEALs piled into the room. Philip stood up from the body of his victim, shaking slightly. He was a sight to behold, a faceless, blood-splattered specter all in black.

"Why did you do that?" Michael demanded, as he walked into the room.

"It was quieter than shooting him." Philip responded. "This way they don't know we're here."

"Fine." Michael said. "But don't drip that blood everywhere. The last thing we need to do is be leaving a trail."

The SEALs took up position once more. They were in another large manufacturing space, this one with walls scattered more haphazardly throughout it.

"Fan out as we advance." Michael said. "I don't want to lose everyone to one frag grenade."

The team compiled, spreading out as they advanced. Philip took cover behind an outcropping of pipes, ducking down to shelter himself from potential enemy fire. The rest of the section fell into place in a rough line, using machinery and pipeworks as cover.

They weren't a moment too soon. A second after John, the furthest advanced member of the section, reached cover, a hail of bullets shot over his head and began to ping against the machinery behind him.

A storm of gunfire quickly rose up, suppressive fire cracking by overhead, forcing the section to keep their heads down. In the enclosed space, the cacophony from the gunfire was nearly deafening.

"How the hell did they figure out where we are?" John shouted.

"I don't know." Michael responded, punctuating his statement with a short burst from his assault rifle. "John, try to lay down some counter fire. Philip, try to change positions!"

John nodded and, lifting his gun over his head, an impressive feat, began providing counter-suppressive fire. Almost immediately, the swarm of bullets whizzing by overhead began to slacken as the enemy was forced to seek cover of their own.

That was the moment Philip was waiting for. He darted out from behind his cover and dashed across the short gap separating it from the next section of piping over. He crouched behind it, clutching his rifle.

The moment John ducked down to reload, the barrage of gunfire overhead resumed its previous intensity. Disturbingly, a fraction of it was directed over Philip's new position.

"Damnit." He muttered, slinking to the side "How'd they find me so fast?"

He reached down to his belt and drew a Chinese frag grenade. They were under orders to avoid using them if at all possible, as they would reveal that the intruders to the facility were military. However, right now, Philip didn't feel as if he had much choice. Philip pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it over his barricade counting as he did so.

The explosion came several seconds later, and the gunfire cut off abruptly as a sudden burst of razor sharp metal ripped through the room, leaving a cloud of smoke in its wake. Philip dropped his rifle into his combat harness and vaulted over his cover, pulling the pin on another grenade as he did so. He tossed the grenade into the darkness, trying to keep his enemies on their feet. A second after the grenade left his hand, a bullet struck his breast plate, sending a sudden shock of pain through his shoulder.

Philip took up a new position, of cover just as the hail of bullets overhead resumed its full intensity, and looked down. The impact had been a glancing hit, and the bullet had struck a heavily armored section of his armor. He was fine.

As lead pinged against something behind him, Philip raised his rifle above the machine sheltering him and retaliated with a long burst of mostly unaimed gunfire. There was a scream, and the fire over his head thinned.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Philip popped up from behind his cover, another grenade at the ready. He spotted a cluster of security guards laying down fire on his comrades. He tossed the grenade at them, the ducked back down as the guards scrambled to get away from his grenade.

There was an explosion, and the gunfire finally began to slow down in earnest. Philip glanced out from the side of his cover as he reloaded and spotted something. A flash of movement on the side of the section, moving toward their rear.

"We're being outflanked!" Philip called, scrambling for a position that granted him cover from the angle of the new attackers. He found a corner where several pipes bent at a ninety degree angle. It wasn't perfect, but it would do.

Philip stuck his gun through a gap in the pipes and opened fire on the group attempting to outflank, aiming to force them to keep their heads down and stay in position. From the glances he could catch of the enemy, he appeared to be succeeding.

Abruptly, there was a whooshing sound, and then a rumble began to echo throughout the chamber. Philip's head snapped around and he spotted a streak of fire shoot across the room toward the distant security guards. A rocket launcher. Evidently, John had gotten bored of the gun battle.

The rocket struck with a massive explosion, many times the magnitude of the explosions from the grenades Philip had thrown. The sound was deafening as the blast wave washed over Philip's position, nearly stunning him with its force.

Philip looked up, catching sight of the devastated bodies of security guards and ruined machines, broken pipe sections, and other destroyed objects. Broken metal littered the site of the rocket strike, and one of the severed pipe sections was gushing water out onto the factory floor.

A long burst of gunfire came from the side where the guards had been attempting to outflank the SEAL section, followed by the explosion of a grenade. Then all was quiet.

"We're clear!" Sergeant Michael called. "Get moving, but stay on your toes!"

Philip stood up from his cover and began to advance down the room, staying close to cover as he did so. He kept expecting guards to burst through the door at the other end of the room, but nothing happened.

The SEALs reached the door, and Philip prepared to breach it. He turned the knob and smashed through the door, and was greeted by a sight unlike any other he had seen.

They appeared to be in the control room for the factory, near where the drugs would be stored. One wall was lined with screens connected to the security cameras, all of which were presently showing nothing but static.

An armed guard stood in the center of the room. Alex shot him down quickly and surveyed the rest of the space.

In the center of the room, a girl sat in a chair. It was a tall, high-back sort of chair, like the sort that would be expected from a Bond villain. She was blindfolded, and had long, flowing white hair. A Japanese woman in a business suit stood next to her, holding a portable radio.

"The intruders are... The intruders are here!" The girl screamed, and began to writhe in her restraints.

The woman looked at Philip and gasped, and reached toward the back of the girl's neck, lighting fast. Honestly, Philip had no idea how to respond, and probably couldn't have stopped her if he had known to try,

The girl's screams changed pitch, becoming much higher, and she began to _melt_ in front of Alex. Her skin seemed to become a glistening surface, like a tan pudding, and then it began to flow off her body, features becoming indistinct as they flowed away, revealing more white goo beneath the surface of her body. Within seconds, nothing was left but a steaming, off-white puddle and a skeleton sitting in the chair in the same position the girl had occupied.

Philip looked on in shock. The woman smiled.

"You can do nothing to me. I have failed my mission." She said, looking at the young SEAL with a strange expression on her face.

For a long instant, Philip did nothing. Then he screamed, and emptied his magazine at the woman. She jerked in place as the bullets tore holes in her black blouse and blood splattered, then fell and Philip's magazine clicked empty.

The rest of the team advanced into the room, weapons at the ready. Philip sighed and looked at Sargent Michael.

"Area clear." He said.


	5. Chapter 5

Special thanks goes to deathwing17, who created the character of Ichrio Sato.

**Break**

"Oh, looks like the police are getting interested in something at the Dresden Factory." Kazumi said. "Well, we can't allow that."

**Break**

The SEALs of Bravo Section burst through the door, assuming assault positions for a moment, confirming that the room was clear. The section leader glanced around, then looked at Sargent Michael.

"All clear on our sector, Sergeant." Bravo Section Leader said. "How are things going here?"

"A little sticky at first," Michael responded, "But we managed."

"So where are these drugs we're here to acquire?" A Bravo Section SEAL said, dropping his rifle into his harness and drawing a chemistry kit from his belt.

"Over here, I think." Gabriel said, pointing at a door labeled 'POST PRODUCTION STORAGE'.

"Awesome," Michael muttered. "Philip, deal with it."

Philip nodded and walked up to the door, removing explosives from his belt. He was still shaken by what he had seen when he entered, but he was a professional, and he would do his job. He began fixing charges of Plastic Explosive to the door, placing copper plates over them to shape the blast outward into the door in as wide a cone as possible. That would, in theory, do as much damage to the door as possible without damaging the contents of the room.

Once the charges were in place, Philip waved the entire squad back once more. The SEALs took cover behind the various consoles and displays in the room. Philip took a step back, training the detonator wires behind him.

He took cover behind the chair in the center of the room, feeling bile rise slightly in his throat. There was a steaming puddle on the ground in front of it, and the skeleton of the girl was quickly crumbling away.

Philip took a deep breath and pressed the detonator button.

There was a loud bang, followed a moment later by a crash as the door fell inward. The SEALs looked up from their cover, and John began to walk toward the now-open door.

"Pretty good job." He muttered, looking at the clean holes blow in the door over the latch and hinges.

A pair of Bravo Section SEALs stepped past John and onto the heavy steel former-door lying on the ground. They both produced black trash bags from their belts and walked into the room.

"Allright, gentlemen, you know what to do." Sergeant Michael said. "Check everything, then put it in the bags."

Philip followed the rest of the SEALs into the room. It was the size of a large closet, with a self-section down the middle of the room and along both of the side walls. What immediately drew Philip's attention, however, was the large safe set into the rear wall. He walked up to the safe and gave it a long look.

He had been trained in safecracking, of course, but any completely designed safe would require enough explosives to destroy the contents to open.

As Philip was drawing more Russian plastic explosives from his belt, he felt Sergeant Michael lay a hand on his shoulder. The bruise from the bullet he had taken twinged.

"We have the techies for that, kid." The Sergeant said. "You have a different job."

"What is it, Sarge?" Philip said, turning around.

"We're at the center of the building," Michael said, "and if those plans we got are correct, there should be a load-bearing column running right through this room. I want you to rig it to blow, to cover our tracks."

"Yes, Sarge." Philip said. "I'll get on that."

**Break**

Sargent Michael watched as the new kid walked out of the room to rig the building. He waved John off of looting duty to escort him. He turned back to the pair of Bravo Section techies working on cracking the safe.

It was apparently a digital lock, as both of them had their laptops out and connected to the lock and were tapping away furiously. As Michael watched, a light on the lock changed from red to green, and the safe opened with an audible click.

There was a small container resting inside. It was a cylinder just under a foot tall and several inches in diameter. It was covered in shrink wrap, and was partially filled with a white powder.

The two techies stepped back, and the chemist SEAL stepped forward, holding several implements. He produced a long stick and poked the container. When nothing happened, he gingerly picked it up.

Nothing happened.

The chemist drew a probe from his belt and place it over the lid of the container. He pressed a button, and the probe launched a needle through the plastic covering of the container and applied an airtight seal.

The probe worked for a moment, testing for the presence of deadly gases or compounds which would destroy the contents of the container if it was opened.

After a few moments, the test came back negative. Carefully, the chemist removed the probe from the jar, then removed the shrink wrap, then went to work.

The Chemist performed a variety of tests on the contents of the container using the equipment he had lugged in with him. After a moment, he announced the results.

"I think this is what we're looking for." He announced. "The tests are coming back as ninety percent by mass of a sucrose filler and ten percent of an unknown compound." He paused for a moment. "Also, it says DR623G on the lid."

Michael smiled slightly as the chemist announced the results of his test. This insane mission hadn't been for nothing after all. He'd had his doubts about this mission from the start, but was too much of a professional soldier to voice them. Now, at least they had accomplished their objective, even if the mission turned into a diplomatic and strategic disaster.

The SEALs began tying up their 'evidence' bags and preparing to move out. As the rest of the team prepared to leave, the two techies went out to the control room of the factory to raid the computers for any data that could shed some light on just what the _hell_ was going on.

As the preparation for departure went underway, the chemist sealed up the container of the drug they were after and began packing it for the evacuation. A few moments after he was finished, Philip and John walked back into the room.

"We're done." Philip said. "I wired up the load-bearing column, plus a few walls, with enough explosives to level a house. When you give the word, this place is coming down.

"Good." Michael said. "We're bugging out of here."

Philip nodded and picked up his rifle. Michael waved forward, and the SEAL team advanced out of the room, drugs in tow.

**Break**

The SEALs reached the vans and began reshuffling cargo. Quickly, the unused heavy weapons were put back in the boxes, and some of the drugs were handed off to the driver of one of the vehicles. The heavy weapon crates were loaded into that vehicle, for delivery to the CIA team.

The rest of the SEALs loaded up into the other van. It was a bit crammed, with ten heavily armed and armored men stuck in the same vehicle, but every one of the team members had been trained to endure discomfort. They would manage.

Moments after the SEALs had arrived, both vehicles pulled out of their parking places and made their way back to the road and began driving away from the factory.

In the vehicle a few minutes later, Michael tapped Philip on the shoulder.

"Blow it." He whispered.

Philip had planted more explosives on the way out of the factory, and wired them all up to remote detonators. He withdrew the remote control from his belt and pressed the button.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a distant rumbling sound, barely audible over the sound of the vehicles.

"Huh." Philip muttered. "I expected more-"

There was a flash in the distance, illuminating the night like a second sunrise. Instants later, a rumbling blast wave swept across the landscape as the partially-collapsed Dresden Pharmaceuticals Takayama Factory vanished in a flash of intense light. The blast wave swept across the landscape, striking the vehicles carrying the SEAL team away and shaking them violently.

The vehicles had just driven into a small gully in the ground, sheltering them from the majority of the blast. That spared them from broken windows, a fate that would befall buildings much further away.

"Wow." Philip said. "I'm pretty sure I didn't set quite _that_ many explosives."

"Of course not." Michael said. "There must have been other explosives on sight, possibly rigged for a sympathetic detonation, or maybe your explosives just set them off."

"Yeah, I figure there'd be a lot of volatile materials at a pharmaceutical plant." Philip said, putting his hand on his chin. "But for a blast like that, you'd need military-grade stuff."

"Yeah." John tilted his head toward Philip. "That was a heck of a boom. But from what you're saying, it sounds like someone had a self-destruct on this place. Who actually does that?"

Michael sighed. Things just got a lot more complicated.

They kept driving.

**Break**

Kazumi leaned back from her computer, putting her hands behind her head. "It's over." She said.

"What do you mean?" Ryouta asked.

"There was just a massive explosion at the Dresden Plant." She said, looking at her screen. "Whoever it was that caused it, if they didn't get out, is a crispy critter."

"Huh." Ryouta muttered. "Could you get anything on who they were before you disconnected?"

"No." Kazumi said. "Whoever it was, they're good. All I can gather is that the attack was launched from China."

"So we're back to square one." Ryouta said. "Our only lead is that device."

"Yeah, but that's an issue for tomorrow." Kazumi said, standing up out of her chair. "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know." Ryouta said. "The busses have stopped running, so I guess I have to say here for the night..."

"Oh," Kazumi said as she walked toward Ryouta, her tone implying that she knew that perfectly well. "Then I guess we're stuck here. Together."

"Kazumi..." Ryouta warned, as the pink-haired girl stepped towards him. He took a step back, but Kazumi's foot shot out and entangled his, and both of them fell to the ground.

Ryouta winched as he hit the ground, feeling Kazumi's noticeably flat chest slam into his.

"Ryouta." Kazumi said. "I had no idea you felt that way. I-"

The chair Kazumi had been using exploded. Ryouta's head snapped around, and he spotted Kuroha standing at the top of the stairs leading to the observatory deck. She was glowing faintly, and her hands were clenched at her side.

**Break**

Alex sat down at on the TV couch at the safe house and flipped the TV onto a Japanese news channel.

_A devastating terror attack occurred today at the Dresden Pharmaceuticals. Just after midnight, a massive explosion ripped through the facility, leveling it and killing all staff present. The security staff had been substantially increased following the break-in two weeks ago, leading to an increase in casualties. The death toll of this devastating attack is estimated to be fifty and rising, with considerable property damage in the surrounding area. Debris were thrown over a mile away from the site of the facility, and..._

Alex tuned the news out as Hikari walked into the room.

"Hello, Hikari." He said, in English. It had been decided that, as Hikari was fully fluent, that English would be the official language of the spy team while in private.

"Hello, Alexander," she responded, bowing. "How are you this morning?"

"Fine," Alex said. "Have you seen the news?"

"No." Hikari said. "Why?"

"There was a massive explosion at the Dresden Facility, and I think I know who's behind it." Alex explained.

"There was?" Hikari gasped. "Did they-"

"We haven't received confirmation of mission completion." Alex warned. "We can't just assume that-"

Hikari dove forward and hugged Alex, pressing her head into his chest, "Thank you." She said. "You've done so much for me, you saved my life once, and now-"

"What do you mean?" Alex said, trying to keep his confusion out of his voice and off his face. This was the first time a girl had glomped him, and he had no idea how to respond. "I didn't do anything. You should be thanking the spec ops operators who got the drugs, not me."

"But without you, Nathan would have let me melt." Hikari said, standing back up. "So really, it's because of you that they got the drugs at all."

"You're welcome, I suppose." Alex said.

"I don't have to die now!" Hikari said. "That means I can... Huh, I wonder what I'm going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the Lab didn't exactly give us a lot of opportunities to think about our futures." Hikari said, frowning. "And after we escaped, all I really thought about was staying away from the Lab people. Plus, without a supply of Death Suppressants, there was no real reason to think about what would happen more than three days from now."

"I've been meaning to ask this," Alex said, "But what were you doing at the airport, anyway?"

Hikari blushed. "I was trying to sneak onto a flight out of the country. I figured that if the lab was here in Japan, I'd be safer in another country. I know it's silly, but-"

"No," Alex said, "That was actually a pretty good plan, although it's really hard to sneak onto an airliner these days. If you had some magic that helped you sneak on board the plane, it might have worked."

"T-thanks." Hikari said. "I mean..."

"You know, if you want, we could put you on a flight back to the States. You could get out of the country and live out the rest of your life in peace. If Special Forces managed to pull off the raid, we should have enough Death Suppressants for you to live long enough to for us to reverse engineer the medicine and produce it for you. You could live out your live in peace."

There was a long pause. Finally, Hikari turned to face Alex.

"I don't think I could do that." She said solemnly.

"Why not?" Alex asked, tilting his head.

"I mean, you saved me. I don't feel like I can just abandon you."

Alex decided not to point out that an untrained girl with a chemical dependency might be more of a liability than an asset.

There was a ring at the doorbell. Alex stood up and walked toward the door, with Hikari following.

_-cause of the Dresden explosion still unknown. In related news, the U.S. President has sent in the elite SEAL team 12 to provide security and assistant for the recovery efforts from this disaster._

**Break**

When Alex opened the door, a man stood there, holding a clipboard. A black van waited in the street, and the man had a large box at his feet.

"Hello." The man said, in flawless unaccented Japanese. "I have a delivery for one Mr. Hunter and company. Could you perhaps sign for it?"

Alex took the clipboard and began to sign it as Calvin Brown, not missing the man's usage of Nathan's real name. Either this man was an ally, or their cover was blown. Alex finished signing the clipboard, and the man passed the large package to Alex. Alex gave the package to Hikari, who set it on the floor next to the door.

"Thank you very much, sir." The man said. "I have another delivery for your group, but it is much larger than this object. If I may pull my vehicle into the garage of your home to deliver it, that would be much appreciated."

"Why?" Alex asked, a cagey tone in his voice.

The man looked down at him. "It's your shipment of heavy weapons, kid. Now, do you want some machine guns or not?"

"In that case, I most definitely will let you in." Alex said, and walked back into the house to open the garage door.

Alex felt giddy as he walked. They were finally getting their heavy weapons. If he'd had an AK or an M16 during the fight with the terrakinetic witch, it would have been a much easier victory. Now they were getting a load of heavy weapons.

_And you have Hikari's Death Suppressants_, something whispered in Alex's mind _isn't that worth even more?_

The Garage door opened, and a large black van backed it. When it was half in the garage, the driver's side door opened, and the man disembarked. He walked around to the back of the vehicle and opened the rear door, revealing two large black plastic boxes.

"The first is Rocket Launchers." The man said. "Five FGM-244 Jaegers, plus reloads."

Alex whistled. "They really didn't hold back. Where'd they come from?"

"When you care to send the very best." The man said, picking up one end of the first crate. "A few missiles fall off a plane bound for India. Tragedy what arms dealers can get their hands on these days."

"That it is." Alex said, joining the man in picking up the box. "What's in the other box?"

"Assorted weapons and ammunition." The man responded. "Be careful with that shit. It'll get you thrown in jail forever here.

Alex and the man put down the crate and moved on to the next one. It was _heavy_. When it was on the floor, Alex looked around, then undid the latches and opened it.

Inside was a veritable arsenal of weaponry. Alex could see pistols, shotguns, rifles, various types of ammunition, and more. Of particular interest to him was the generous helping of smoke grenades. Given the unknown abilities of their adversaries, Alex figured it was important to have as much battlefield control as possible. It didn't matter how deadly a witch's death ray was if she couldn't see you.

Alex thanked the mysterious visitor, who bowed to him, got back in his truck, and drove away. Then he looked back at the two massive boxes of weapons and sighed.

"Nathan! Anna!"

**Break**

Ichiro Sato walked along the hill road, kicking a pebble in front of him. He was rather conflicted. After the Narita Airport incident, his father, who worked for the JSDF, had been transferred into the area, forcing his family to move on extremely short notice. He had transferred into the local honors high school, and now was being pressured to join a club.

Ichiro was a rather average-looking Japanese boy, of medium stature, dark eyes, and short black hair. He walked slowly along the road, somewhat dejected. He hadn't been accepted into any of the clubs he cared, even slightly, to join. Either he hadn't met the requirements, or the clubs had been full.

He kicked the pebble again. He had been walking for some time, now. He knew the school had an Astronomy Club with an observatory somewhere up in these hills, but last he heard, it only had one member, and would probably be shut down next year. It probably wasn't worth trying to join.

But those were only his problems. In Japan, something was going badly wrong. First the Narita Airport Bio Attack, and now the explosion at Dresden Pharmaceuticals. It had to be terrorism, but...

"Hey, watch out!" A feminine voice shouted, "You're going to fall!"

Ichiro whirled around, which allowed him to spot a brown-haired girl with rather large assets running toward him.

It also threw him off balance, sending him tumbling off the edge of the road.

Ichiro tumbled through the air. _Is this how it ends_? He thought as he fell. He tumbling into an upside down position, and spotted the same brown-haired girl looking over the edge of the cliff.

Then there was a flash of light, and he was watching the girl hit the ground. She struck with a faint thump, but nothing like what Ichiro would have expected given the height he had fallen from...

_Wait! What the hell happened?_ Ichiro thought with a start. _I was falling, and then I wasn't! Did I imagine it?_

He looked down the cliff again. The girl was still standing at the bottom of the cliff, dusting herself off.

"What happened?" He shouted to her, cupping his hands over his mouth.

"You fell off the cliff." She responded. "I save you with my magic!"

"What do you mean, magic?" Ichiro demanded.

"Wait right there." The girl said. "I'll be right back up there!"

Ichiro sat down on the ground near the edge of the cliff and waited. He sat there for almost ten minutes, but he wasn't going anywhere. What had happened was just too weird. He wanted an explanation.

Eventually the girl walked up to him, panting.

"Hello." She said, smiling, "I'm Kotori Takatori. I think you need to come with me."

**Break**

Chisato Ichijiku sat at his workstation, looking over the display of a strange, alien creature. He sighed. Things were not going as planned. The second raid on the Dresden facility was much more damaging than the first, and crippled his organization's ability to produce the Death Suppressants needed to keep the magicians alive. Already, he had been required to liquidate many B+ ranked witches ahead of schedule.

Ultimately, however, it would not greatly affect the production of the Sorcerian. He had stockpiles of the drugs required, and most of the witches needed. Now, all he needed was-

The door behind him cycled open, and Kurofuku, his second in command, entered.

"Sir," Kurofuku said. "We have received confirmation that enemy agents are at work in the country."

"Conformation?" Ichijiku asked. "What sort of confirmation?"

"Not conformation as such, but the analysis team confirms that Hexenjagd would not have the resources to launch the attack on the Dresden facility. That was too professional for them." Kurofuku explained. "Given the fact that our operations have been targeted twice with no sign of the traitors, it seems prudent to assume that we have a new, unknown, opponent, sir."

"Very well." Ichijiku muttered. "We have a contingency plan for this, after all. Pick four other agents. You and they will pose as information brokers with intelligence on shady government agencies. Throw in something about abductions or illegal experiments. Each of you will take a witch to use when something bites. For you, I recommend No. 1936."

"Audacia, sir?" Kurofuku asked, a hesitant tone in his voice. "I don't know if she's the best choice. She's... unstable, sir, and not like Saori or Kikako. She's..."

"Nonetheless, her powers are incredibly useful." Ichijiku declared. "She will have no trouble crushing any clandestine forces, and we're already preparing a cover story the explain the inevitable collateral damage."

"Yes, sir." Kurofuku said, bowing. "I will take 1936."

**Break**

The rocket lifted off into the air with a massive roar, a bright light flaring at the base of the colossal controlled explosion. It rose on a pillar of smoke, shooting upwards and out across the Atlantic Ocean.

Dominic Winters watched the rocket rise until it was out of sight, then turned to the scientist standing next to him.

"Thank you for allowing me to view the launch, Doctor." Dominic said. "It was very enjoyable."

"It would be more enjoyable if you told me why my probe was taken off my boster." The scientist, Dr. Merkwürdigliebe, said.

"The Agency's need was more pressing. You will be reimbursed for the loss of your booster." Dominic assured him.

"That's not the point! The launch window for this probe won't come again for another five years!" The doctor shouted. "It took years to build, and now you go and steal it for your warmongering! This was-"

"Doctor, please believe me when I say I understand you fully and empathize with you." Dominic said. "However, please do not call what we're doing here today warmongering. In fact, this operation may be the world's only hope to avoid a war."

"What do you mean? I-"

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a flight to catch."

**Break**

Domic sat down at the table with Martin Griffin, the Director of the CIA, and President Viktor Justinian. They were sitting in a bunker under the White House, built specifically for meetings such as this one.

"So, gentlemen, what do we do now?" The president asked, folding his hands on the table.

"Well, we have positive confirmation of supernatural events occurring in Japan, and have committed an act of war against one of our staunchest allies." Griffin said.

"Which has SecState working overtime." Justinian said. "Though it seems that our plan to push the blame onto the Chinese is working."

"Good." Griffin said. "I don't want Japan turning on us just yet."

"Yet?" The President asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I figure it's inevitable, given what they're doing." Griffin explained.

"I see.' The President said. "Dominic, how is the operation going?"

"Well, so far." Dominic said. "The initial goals of Operation Blazing Summer have been obtained, namely confirming the presence of supernatural events in the East Asia. However, given the course of events, we have chosen to leave our agents in place to investigate further."

"Good." The President said. "I got the National Security Advisor and the SecDef to go along with the raid, but they're pressing for results."

"We are also in the process of mobilizing and emplacing additional agents," Winters said. "However, given the scale of the operation we might be looking at enacting, that will take time. It is essential that the Japanese keep their borders open as long as possible."

"I see." The President said. "What, in your estimation, is the probability of a war resulting from these events?"

Dominic sighed. "High. I think war over these magicians is likely. However, I'm still not sure when it will occur, what magnitude it will be, and even who the combatants will be."

"So you don't think we're at the call-up-the-reservists point, correct?" The President asked.

"No," Winters said, "But..."

"I drew similar conclusions myself." Justinian muttered. "I have, however, drafted a new weapons procurement bill. It authorizes a few billion dollars in extra military spending, which we could use to prepare for a war, if there is one."

"Excellent idea." Griffin said. "I'm not sure I agree with you about a war being inevitable, but its always best to be prepared."

"I don't think a war is inevitable," Justin said, "just that magic seems like the sort of thing that the Chinese or North Koreans might be willing to start a fight over."

"And that's if the raid on Dresden doesn't get discovered, and get us into a war with Japan." Dominic said. "We're walking on a razor's edge with this situation."

**Break**

"What do you mean, you revealed your magic?" Ryouta demanded, slamming the palm of his hand down on the observatory table. "It's critical that we keep that a secret!"

"He was falling off a cliff!" Kotori responded. "What should I have done? Not save him?"

Ryouta sighed. He had risked exposure with Kuroha to save lives before, but never in a manner this blatant. They had someone who now knew of the existence of magic on their hands, and no way to deal with him.

"We could kill him." Kazumi said. "He came up here alone, so it would be a while before anyone started asking questions."

"Kazumi..." Ryouta said, trailing off. It was possible. They could do it, and it might be the best way to protect the witches. But it seemed wrong.

"What?" Kazumi asked. "We totally could do it. Hit him over the head with a brick, have Neko tear him up, and bury the pieces. I could hack the police system and disrupt the investigation."

Ryouta sighed. "No, Kazumi. We're not doing that."

"You're right. Neko probably couldn't handle that."

"Could you people stop talking about murdering me while I'm _right here_?" Ichiro asked, tones of confusion and worry in his voice. "What's going on here, anyway?"

"If we tell you, people might kill you over it." Ryouta said. "Are you sure you really want to know? It's not too late to walk away and forget you ever saw anything."

Ichiro took a deep breath. He didn't want to get killed over some stupid secret, but not knowing would torment him for the rest of his life. Besides, he should have died falling off the cliff earlier. This life was an extension, granted by whatever magic lay here. He wanted to know what it was.

"I want you to tell me what's going on here." Ichiro said. "I don't think I could stand not knowing."

"Fine." Ryouta said, pulling a paper out from a drawer under the table and pushing it toward Ichiro. "But you can never tell anyone. And first, you have to join the Astronomy Club."

Ichiro pulled a pen out of his pocket and began filling out the form. "So what is it?"

"These girls here are all witches." Ryouta said. "They escaped from the research lab that made them that way, and now they're on the run. The Lab is trying to find them, and is willing to kill anyone who knows their secret."

"How exactly are they trying to find them?" Ichiro asked. "Are they using the police or their own people?"

"Both, from what we can tell." Ryouta said. "But the primary threat- Hey, why are you concerned?"

"You're inducting me into your little club, right? That makes me involved." Ichiro said. "So what's the primary threat?"

"Assassins." Ryouta said gravely. "Witches sent out by the Lab to reclaim the escaped witches. They all have very strong witch powers, and are utterly ruthless."

"Why is that? If this Lab is a place witches want to escape, why would they show dedication to it once they're free?"

"Each witch has a device on the back of her neck called a harnest. It has a series of buttons on it, and if a certain button is pressed, the witch dies." Ryouta said. "The Lab attaches a beacon to the device that presses the kill button upon receiving a specific signal. The assassins know that if they fail to carry out their mission, they will be executed. That is why they are so ruthless."

"I... See." Ichiro said. "That's awful. Why would they do that?"

"We don't know." Ryouta muttered.

"Have you dealt with any of these assassins before?" Ichiro asked.

"Two. One capable of firing a powerful energy beam, and the other able to cut anything within six meters of her."

"Wait." Ichiro said. "If you fought them, how does the Lab not know where you are?"

"Neither of them were intended for us."

"I see." Ichiro said.


	6. Chapter 6

"So, where are we going again?" Anna asked, strapping herself into her seat in the team's SUV. "Also, why couldn't you have told us before?"

"Well, I couldn't tell you in the house because we've swept the car for bugs more recently." Nathan said, look. "We can't risk exposing potentially incriminating evidence, including recordings of questionable conversations."

"So then, where are we going?" Alex asked, from his seat next to Anna. "I've been wondering about that."

"We're meeting with an information broker who claims to have information about shady Japanese Government activities, which he hinted involved human experimentation." Nathan said. "It's probably nothing, but there's a chance that there might be a big payoff, so we have to take the risk."

"I thought we were supposed to be a command team." Alex said. "Not field agents. Shouldn't they be the ones gathering this information?"

"We are." Ishikawa said, turning around from his position in the shotgun seat. "But due to certain disruptions in travel," he looked at Alex, "we are facing an even greater manpower shortage on this mission than was initially expected. As a result, everyone has to pull double duty until more agents can be emplaced."

"Okay." Alex said. "So where are we meeting this information broker?"

"Akihabara, in Tokyo." Ishikawa said. "I believe there is a certain location that has been chosen for the meeting already."

"Why there?" Alex asked. "Wouldn't you want to have something like this out in the country, where people would be less likely to stumble into the meeting?"

"Not necessarily." Ishikawa said, as he pulled the vehicle out of the driveway. "Then we could track each other's vehicles, if we were so inclined. This manner of doing business gives both sides more anonymity, which people in the profession of our contact tend to value."

"That makes sense, I guess." Alex said. "What are we giving him in exchange for the information?"

"Taxpayer dollars." Anna said. "What did you expect?"

"I figure'd we'd have to give him information of our own. Isn't that how these guys usually work?" Alex said.

"No," Nathan said. "You always have to pay these guys for the meeting. From there, sometimes you have to trade pieces of information, tic-for-tac. Its a blatant rip off, but its better than trying to go through the official channels."

"I'd imagine so." Anna said. "So what exactly are we trying to learn from this guy?"

"We aren't entirely sure." Ishikawa replied. "But at this point, we're operating on so little information that anything will be of assistance. Really, we're hoping to learn anything."

"I see." Anna said.

**Break**

"A maid cafe?" Anna said. "Really?"

"If these directions are correct, yes." Ishikawa said, looking down at a handwritten sheet. "It does seem like a strange place to meet an information broker."

"It's definitely the strangest place I've ever met a dealer." Nathan said.

"I bet he's some kind of pervert." Anna muttered. "Meeting us in a place like this..."

Alex looked at his watch. "I wonder when he's going to get here." Alex said. "Isn't the meeting supposed to start soon?"

"Yes, it is," Nathan growled. "I hope this guy didn't stand us up, for his sake."

"I'm sure he's simply running behind schedule." Ishikawa said, looking down at Nathan. "After all, the traffic on the way here was quite thick."

Alex looked at Hikari. She was wearing the one of Anna's spare pastel dresses, through it was a bit baggy on her around the chest. She had a nervous look in her eyes, and glanced around constantly.

"Hey." Alex said, taking her hand and pulling her aside. She gasped as his skin touched hers.

"Y...Yes?" She asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"What are you worried about?" Alex asked, leaning down slightly to look the shorter girl in the eyes.

"I'm just scared that something will go wrong with this meeting." She said. "What if this Information Broker betrays us and the police come, and I have to go back to the lab?"

"I'm sure that won't happen. Even if it does, we can always fight our way out. With your barriers, I think we can take on five times our numbers in basic infantry."

"But what if they send a witch?" Hikari said. "I can't fight an A-ranked witch. I-"

"No." Alex said. "I'll handle it. I've already taken down one witch, and I can do it again. This time, I have alies. We can take on anything they'll throw at us."

He left the _unless they throw the entire Japanese Military at us_ unsaid.

"But Alex?"

"Yes?"

"I _don't_ want to go back to the lab." Hikari said, a sudden steel in her voice. "If it comes to that... I don't what to go back there."

"I understand." Alex said. "I promise." He had no idea if he would be able to follow through on that promise, if it came to that, but he could try. And besides, right now, what was important was keeping their witch as stable as possible.

And if that meant telling her that he would shoot her out of the arms of her previous captors, then so be it.

"Ah, hello there." Alex turned around. A purple-haired Japanese man wearing a long coat approached the storefront of the cafe where the team was waiting. He appeared to be the one who had spoken.

He was flanked by two men in nondescript coats wearing large hats. Behind them stood a strangely dressed girl. The moment he caught sight of her, Alex's gaze flickered toward Hikari.

The girl had long, silvery hair that hung below her shoulders, and she wore a bulky jumpsuit of a darker shade of silver covered in numerous pouches and pockets. The strangest part were her eyes, which were a dark violet color.

"I believe we have an appointment." The man said. "If you would follow me."

He opened the glass door and walked inside the cafe. Nathan hesitated for a moment, then followed, and the rest of the group walk in after him. Alex waited until the rest of the CIA team, plus the information broker's people, had walked in before entering, keeping an eye on Hikari as he did so. This was the first time they were bringing her into a high-stress situation, and he wanted to be careful.

The large group entered the cafe and spread out.

"Welcome home, masters!" The waitresses, who were of course dressed as classic maids, said.

"Thank you." The information broker said, walking toward the hostess. "We'll take the private room."

"That room is by reservation only-" The hostess began.

The information broker reached toward her and pushed something into her hand. The girl looked down and her eyes widened, then spoke. "If you'll follow me, please."

The maid lead the group toward a side room, then stepped aside as they began to enter. Alex, still at the back of the group, cast a sideways look at the strangely dressed, violet-eyed girl. Something seemed off about her, but he couldn't put his finger on what. It could just be that it was here strange dress that was making him suspicious, but her clothing could just be a distraction, meant to draw a viewer's attention away from something else.

As he walked in, Alex considered the other two men that the information broker had brought. He couldn't spot any obvious firearms, but it was clear from their presence that the two men were gunners. There was really no other reason for them to be at the meeting.

It was, actually, pretty gutsy of the man to allow the group to outnumber him here. From what Alexander had read, that wasn't how these types of men normally operated. He suspected that they would have other people on site, perhaps mixed in with the restaurant staff, but he had no way of confirming it unless they pulled out guns.

Alex was the last to sit down, and as he did so, the waitress began to pass out menus. Alex opened it up, looked at it for a moment, then ordered an omelette.

The waitress walked out, and the information broker put down his menu. "So, gentlemen, how may I be of assistance?" He said with a smile.

"We've heard that you have certain information that may be of interest to us." Nathan said. "That's how you may be of assistance."

"Well, yes, that's certainly possible." The information broker said. "I specialize in interesting information. But is there perhaps an incentive for me to share my information?"

"This." Nathan said, passing an attache case to the information broker under the table. "I assume that you are sufficiently interested?"

The broker passed the case to one of his nondescript associates, who snapped it open on his lap, facing away from Alex, and nodded.

"I'm interested." The information broker said. "So what is it you want to know?"

"You claim to have knowledge about certain experiments performed by a certain Japanese Government agency." Nathan said quietly. "We want to know what's going on."

"That's a very interesting subject." The information broker said. "And one I'm not so sure that I want to talk about. See, people in the underworld who look too close into that matter have a tendency to start disappearing."

"I've already paid you." Nathan said. "If you intend to go back on our deal..."

"There's no need to worry about that." The broker said quickly. "I was simply requesting that you express discretion in your dealings involving this subject."

He leaned toward the center of the table. "From what I've heard, there's a group associated with the Government that's been abducting girls for experimentation. I don't know what they're up to, but everyone I've talked to has said there's something weird going on with them."

"Are they part of the Japanese Government?" Nathan asked, leaning toward the broker.

"I don't know, but I hear the scale they're operating on is something else." The broker answered. "I don't know how they'd be getting away with what they're doing otherwise."

"Huh." Nathan said. "Is that all you have?"

The broker passed Nathan something. "That contains the rest of the information I have gathered on this subject." He said, them stood up. "Now, if those are all your questions, I'm afraid this lovely meeting must come to an end."

Alexander glanced out of the door leading to the main space of the restaurant. There was no one there, and he didn't spot anyone walking by on the street, a marked change from only minutes before.

The strangely dressed girl also stood up, and walked over to stand next to the information broker.

Ishikawa elbowed Anna. She nodded and pulled out her smartphone.

"It was a pleasure talking to you all." The information broker said. "But I have confirmed that you are my targets."

He turned to the girl standing next to him. "Audacia, destroy them."

"Yes... sir." She said, then slowly turned to face the CIA team. The girl, Audacia, held out a hand and snapped her fingers.

Immediately, a billowing cloud of white mist appeared behind her. Alex watched, dumbstruck. A shadow began to appear in the depths of the cloud of mist. A large one.

"Witch!" Alex shouted, reaching down toward his belt.

As he drew a smoke grenade, the shadow in the mist behind Audacia became more defined. The mist began to clear.

A metal arm shot out of the cloud and grabbed the girl under the arms, lifted her into the air, and pulled her back into the mist.

Alex threw the smoke grenade toward the information broker. As it flew through the air, leaving a trail of grey behind it, Nathan drew his handgun and fired three times into the cloud of mist.

As the gun fired the second and third shoots, the sound of bullets ricocheting off metal echoed out of the could.

Alex had no idea what was going on, but he knew he was already at a disadvantage. He reached down to his belt, drew two smoke grenades, and threw them at the cloud the enemy witch had materialized.

Then he turned and, with the rest of the team, ran like hell.

Nathan took the lead as the group fled the cafe. As Alexander had previously noticed, there was on one in the front of the restaurant, and no one on the street.

"Where are we going?" Anna asked, as they ran down the street.

"To the car." Nathan responded.

"Are we running away?" Anna continued.

"No, we need to get something."

"What?" Alex shouted.

"You'll see." Ishikawa said.

They reached the car a couple dozen seconds later. As crashes echoed from restaurant, Nathan and Ishikawa grabbed the back doors of the van and threw them open, revealing a large black plastic box. They pulled it out and slammed it onto the concrete, then flung it open.

Inside were five FGM-244 Jaeger missile launchers.

Nathan grabbed the top rocket launcher and slung it over his shoulder. Ishikawa did likewise. As Alex stared, Ishikawa grabbed another rocket launcher and pushed it into his hands.

"I take it you know how to use these?" Nathan said.

"Yeah, but... You brought rocket launchers to a meeting?"

"And lo and behold, it paid off." Nathan said, grabbing two bandoliers carrying three reloads each and passed one to Alex. "Make your shots count. That thing might be a paper tiger, but I doubt it."

"What's the plan?" Anna asked, as she took a rocket launcher for herself. "What do we do?"

"Split up." Nathan said, as Ishikawa retrieved a machine gun from behind a false panel in the car. "Alex and I take cover on the street, you and Ishikawa climb up into the buildings and provide us with covering fire."

"Got it." Alex said, already scanning the street for cover. There was an elevated overlock with some cover, as concrete street decorations and plenty of parked cars. "What about Hikari?"

"She runs away." Nathan said. "Maybe we can hold this thing here for long enough for her to get away. You still have your Death Suppressants on you, right?"

Hikari nodded.

"Good." Nathan looked back at the maid cafe, from which loud crashes were issuing. "Hikari, you run away and try to get to the U.S. Embassy. As for asylum. The Agency should get involved and get you back to the states, where we sent the rest of the Death Suppressants."

"No." Hikari said.

"What?" Nathan said with a start, clearly shocked.

"I'm tired of running away." Hikari said, voice wavering. "You have an extra rocket launcher. Give me one. I'll cover Alex with my powers. He'll be able to do a lot more damage that way."

"You'll die," Nathan said, staring straight at her. "Do you want to di-"

"I should have died yesterday." Hikari said, closing her eyes and smiling. "This life I have is just an extension. If by sacrificing it, I can help even one of you survive, I think I owe you that much."

She paused, then smiled. "Besides, I'm tired of running," this time, she declared it firmly.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Fine." He muttered, and passed her a rocket launcher. She staggered slightly under the weight, but recovered quickly. She looked down the sight and fingered the trigger.

"Don't do that until you're ready to fire." Alex said. "There's no time to teach you to lock on, so just fire it like an RPG, just point and shoot, or hold it until I need it."

She nodded. "Got it."

Alexander could tell that she was doing her best to sound brave, and he didn't fault her effort. He glanced back toward the restaurant and saw a colossal metal figure in crouched position moving toward the storefront, smashing the ceiling as it did so.

"SCATTER!" Alex shouted, and began running toward a raised concrete street planter, Hikari following him. He ran in a low combat couch, cradling his rocket launcher as he did so. He looked back and saw Hikari running at her full height, not doing anything to make herself a less conspicuous target. Alex was about to shout something when he spotted the shimmer of one of her shields in the air, sheltering her.

Just as Alexander reached the cover of a concrete street planter, the massive enemy machine stepped out of the ruined cafe and into the street. While Hikari took cover, Alex took a hesitant look at the enemy machine.

It stood in the rough shape of a bulky man, with bright silvery surface metal. It carried a massive gun in both arms, and two pods extended from each shoulder. Alexander guessed they carried missiles. The barrel of an additional gun peeked out from a protrusion on the back of the machine, which looked something like a backpack. In all, the robot stood about sixteen or eighteen feet tall, including the head-like cluster of what Alex assumed to be sensors, and was a downright impressive machine.

As Alex readied his rocket launcher, the enemy robot raised it's weapon.

A stream of tracers shot out from from the weapon with a massive, repeating roar and impacted the car where the team had been standing scant seconds before.

While the pilot of robot continued to hose down the SUV, Alex cautiously rose up from behind his planter.

"Hikari, cover me!" He shouted over the continuing sound of machine gun firing.

"Okay!" She responded.

Alex popped up from behind the planter and looked down the sights of his rocket launcher and activated the targeting system. It wouldn't do much good at this range, but he needed the shot to count.

The rocket launcher began beeping, searching for a target. Alex centered the targeting sight on the enemy mech, but the auto-targeting system refused to recognize it as a legitimate target.

Alexander cursed, then switched to manual firing mode. He centered the sights on the machine, which was still hosing down the car, and pulled the trigger.

A blast of fire shot out the back end of the rocket launcher, and Alex felt the heat of the backblast wash over his back as the missile launched. With a roar, the rocket shot out of the front of the launch tube and lanced toward the target.

The missile streaked toward the target leaving a short-lived contrail of glowing smoke behind it. It impacted the enemy mech with a colossal explosion, engulfing it in smoke and flames. As the explosion ripped into the mech, Alexander thought he saw glowing blue... panels... appear around the point of impact.

Not assuming it would be that easy to dispatch the enemy, Alex reached down to his belt and drew a smoke grenade. Spotting movement a hint of movement in the enemy's direction, Alexander threw the smoke bomb, then tapped Hikari on the shoulder.

"We need to move!" He shouted.

"Got it!" She responded. "I'll make a barrier."

Alexander and Hikari ran out from behind the concrete planter, the shimmer of a barrier still between them and the smoke-obscured enemy.

A moment after the pair reached the cover of the next planter, a missile darted out of the cloud of smoke concealing the enemy mech and struck the top of the planter Alex and Hikari had just left. As it exploded with a deafening blast of sound, two more followed it in quick succession.

Alex winced as the sound of the detonation washed over him. Instants later, shards of concrete and dirt thrown up by the explosion rained down on him. A sharp piece of material sliced down his cheek, sending a short burst of pain through his face.

Alex saw Hikari shout something, and as she did so, he realized that he couldn't hear her over the ringing in his ears.

_Am I deaf_? Alexander thought. He shook his head and began the process of reloading the Jaeger rocket launcher, keeping his ungloved fingers clear of the metal pieces heated by the backblast from the rocket.

As Alex slid the next rocket into place, he vaguely heard the chattering roar of the enemy mech's chaingun again. It sounded like it was directed somewhere away from him, but he ducked down, not taking any chances.

Alex slid the rear latching mechanism of the rocket launcher closed, completing the reloading process. The screen on the side of the launcher began blinking as a connection to the missile inside was established, then went green.

Alexander looked at Hikari, who was huddling next to the concrete planter. He nudged her with his toe, then mimed a wall and raised his rocket launcher to his shoulder.

"You'll have to aim it manually," He shouted, on the off chance she could hear him. His voice sounded off to him. In the distance, the chaingun fire cut off abruptly. "I need you to make a wall and attack with me."

Hikari responded, but Alex couldn't make out what she said. However, the shimmer of a barrier appeared above the concrete planter, so he assumed she got the message.

Peeking out from the side of his cover, Alex caught sight of a figure moving in the smoke near where the enemy mech was. There was a roar, which he heard distantly, and a rocket streaked out from the opposite direction and struck the figure. There was a slight flare of color and like in the smoke, and then the heavy footfalls of the machine, which Alex _believed_ was moving away from them.

"NOW!" He shouted, and Alex and Hikari sprang up from behind their cover, missile launchers on their shoulders. They drew a bead on the enemy and fired together.

Their rockets streaked out into the cloud of smoke. One of them, Alex was running too high on adrenaline to tell whose, struck the machine. This time, there was an explosion and Alex didn't spot any flash of light.

Hikari raised the barrier again as Alex tossed his second to last smoke grenade.

"Let's move!" Alex shouted. His voice still felt strange, but his hearing was definitely recovering. "Into the building!"

Under the cover of smoke and shield, the two impromptu warriors ran into the building behind them.

As they ran, Alexander heard the roar of the chaingun start up again, shortly followed by another, stranger, noise as the stream of bullets impacted Hikari's barrier. He winched reflectively, but the barrier held.

Alexander crossed his arms over his face as he smashed through the glass front door of the building. Shards of glass fell around him as he broke through the pane, and Hikari followed through the hole he had made.

He looked around. They appeared to be in the lobby of some sort of office building, with a desk in front of them and a variety of benches and tables on the floor surrounding them. Alexander looked around frantically, then he spotted what he was looking for; a fire staircase.

"This way!" He shouted, waving his arm.

Hikari followed Alex as he dashed across the lobby, pushed open the doors of the staircase, and began to ascend. Alex led the way up the staircase, wishing he had a weapon other than his rocket launcher. If they encountered anyone else...

Moments after the pair had begun ascending the stairs, the roar of the chaingun returned, followed by the sound of breaking glass. Seconds later, the sound of the explosive detonation of a Jaeger anti-armor rocket followed. The chaingun fire cut off for a second, then returned. Alex hoped that whoever had fired the rocket had taken cover properly.

Alexander and Hikari ascended four flights of stairs before exiting the stairwell. By the time they reached the landing, Hikari was panting, but she had a determined look on her face. Alex opened the door and surveyed the hallway. It was abandoned.

As he and Hikari advanced into the hallway, Alex began trying doorknobs, looking for one that was unlocked. After five tries, he found one, and he and Hikari entered the room.

It was a fairly standard office, with a large picture window obscured by curtains on the wall opposite the door. There was a desk, chair, computer, file cabinets, and other office items. Alex began pushing the heavy desk against the exterior wall.

"What are you doing?" Hikari said, standing in the doorway.

"Trying to get us some extra cover." Alex sand, pushing the desk over next to the window. "Start reloading your rocket launcher."

As Alex began the reloading process, he attempted to walk Hikari through the procedure. He finished quickly, but she made slow progress.

"Let's switch." Alexander said, as two more explosions sounded in quick succession outside.

"I'm sorry." Hikari said. "I-"

Alex grabbed the rocket launcher out of her hands and began loading his last spare rocket into it. As he slid it shut, he shoved his rocket launcher toward Hikari.

"Clear the window, then on my mark, fire on the robot." Alex said. "We're running low on missiles, so try not to miss."

As Hikari pulled the curtains aside, Alexander looked at the mech below. As he watched, a rocket streaked out from a nearby building, narrowly missed the enemy mech, and impacted against the base of the building next to them.

_How much firepower will it take to bring this thing down?_ Alex thought, looking at the machine. It was clearly beaten up. It was covered in burn marks, and in places chunks of its armor had been torn away by the missile fire.

Hikari finished drawing up the curtains, she raised her rocket launcher. Alex grabbed a paperweight off the floor, hefted it, and began smashing the glass out of the window, sending shining shards raining down to the battle-torn street below.

Alexander dropped the paperweight and gripped the handle of his missile launcher. He drew a bead on the enemy machine, the auto-targeting on his launcher disabled. Hikari did likewise.

At the same moment, they pulled the triggers. Their rockets launched with overlapping roars, and streaked down towards the enemy below. Stupidly, Alex watched them as they descended, and saw as they impacted the enemy mech with a massive explosion, engulfing it in twin spheres of smoke and fire. As the explosions cleared, something shot up out of the machine enormously quickly.

"Let's move!" Alex shouted. He stood up and began running toward the exit of the office, grabbing Hikari's arm as he did so. She squeaked as he pull her through the door, but she retained her grip on her rocket launcher.

Alex led them back to the stairwell, and they began to descend.

"Where are we going?" Hikari asked.

"We're getting clear of our attack site." Alex said. "Either that thing is done for, or it's going to be retaliating in a hurry, and it'll be aiming straight at our launch point."

"Got it." Hikari said. "I wonder who it is?"

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, as they ran down the stairs.

"I know a lot of the witches from the lab." Hikari responded. "I might recognize her."

"So you think that's a witch?"

"Yes." Hikari said. "What else would it be?"

Alex grunted. "I think I saw something eject from that thing as our rockets hit. The pilot, or witch, or whatever, might still be out there. Be careful."

Hikari nodded. "I just hope..."

"What?" Alex said, as they rounded the second floor landing.

"Maybe we can save her."

"What do you mean?" Alex exclaimed. "She just tried to kill us, in case you forgot. Hell, she may _have _killed a member of our team. What do you mean, you want to save her?"

"But whatever she did, the lab made her do it." Hikari said. "If we can just get her beacon off, then she'll stop attacking us."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Alex said.

"I don't know." Hikari said quietly.

The pair burst into the lobby of the building and surveyed the area. It had been ravaged by the enemy mech's chaingun, with damaged and destroyed furniture lying scattered about, and bullet holes riddling the front desk.

Alex and Hikari advanced across the lobby. The glass front had been completely shattered by the hail of chaingun rounds, making it easy for them to advance onto the street.

It was a mess. Cars had been damaged and destroyed left and right by bullets, and the several of the buildings were scared by rocket impacts. A thin haze of smoke lay over the area, and near the center of the street, the scattered pieces of the enemy mech lay everywhere. Alex spotted a piece of something that looked like an arm.

Alex caught a flash of movement. He whirled around, leveling the empty rocket launcher. It wouldn't do any good in a fight, but it could be useful as a bluff.

As Alexander turned, he caught sight of the silver-haired girl from earlier, Audacia. She was wandering around as if she was looking for something, her head toward the ground. She still wore her ornate silver jumpsuit, though patches of it looked slightly singed.

"Freeze." Alex shouted, pointing the rocket tube at her.

She turned around, a startled expression on her face. Alex thought her violet eyes looked wet, but she blinked as she stared at him, clearing them.

"What are you going to do with that?" The girl, Audacia, said.

"I'll blow you to hell if you don't put your hands up." Alex said.

"You'd be caught in the blast radius." Audacia said, taking a step toward him. "You'd never-"

"You want to try me?" Alexander said firmly. "Do you want to-"

She moved faster than Alex would have believed possible, ducking down as she took a shuffling step toward him, swinging her arm upwards to swat the rocket launcher away.

The girl hit harder than Alexander would have believed possible. The missile tube was knocked clean out of his hands and went tumbling end over end away up into the air.

"It was empty anyway." Alexander muttered, as he assumed a fighting stance, raising his hands.

Audacia grunted as she swung a fist toward him. Alexander blocked the attack, but she hit_ hard_, far harder than he would have believed possible. He blocked the follow-up attack, a quick uppercut, but it _hurt_, like someone was hitting him with a metal pipe_._

Alexander counterattacked with a quick jab, but the girl swatted him away easily.

Almost immediately, Alexander was on the defensive. He had received brutal training in hand-to-hand combat in basic training, and he suspected that was the only thing keeping him alive.

He blocked on blow, then another, and another, his forearms screaming at each impact of the girls supernaturally strong strikes. She was quick, too, faster than seemed possible. She seemed undisciplined and untrained, however, and that was the only reason she hadn't yet overwhelmed Alex.

Finally, one of her attacks, a straight punch, got through Alexander's guard. He shuffled backwards, rolling with the impact, but he still doubled up at the force of the blow.

As he straightened, Audacia took a step toward him, then looked him in the eye.

"Why do I have to kill you?" She asked, in a strange tone of voice.

Alex stared back at her. She was standing barely a foot away from him. In an instant, his mind processed a thousand courses of action. A sucker punch could work, but it would have to put her out of the fight instantly. Given her strength, though, that seemed hard to do. He could go for a throat or groin attack, but she would probably intercept that.

Alexander Knight had been outmatched by a girl he had just met.

So he kissed her.

Audacia gasped in surprise as Alexander's lips met hers. She was so startled, she didn't notice as his right hand snaked over her shoulder, reached the back of her neck, and pressed her hand-up button.

"What-" She said, as Alex pulled away from the kiss.

"Now, then." Alex muttered, taking a step back and returning to his fighting stance. "Where were we?"


	7. Chapter 7

"Now, then." Alex muttered, taking a step back and returning to his fighting stance. "Where were we?"

The girl stumbled backwards, her hand shooting up to the back of her neck. "You... you hung me up?"

"Yeah." Alexander said, fists up. "You want to try fighting me without your magic?"

"No, you... You could have ejected me? Why didn't you?" She asked, sounding confused. "I am your enemy? Why didn't you..."

"You're not my enemy anymore." Aex said. "You're my prisoner. Now, will you come quietly, or will I have to knock you out?"

"I... you can't take me anywhere." Audacia said, sounding strangely detached. "I have a beacon attached to my Harnest. As soon as they realize that I failed, they'll remotely eject me."

"A beacon?" Alex said. "Can I see it?"

Hikari had said something about beacons being used to control witches, but she hadn't been very specific. She said they needed to get it off to stop the witch from attacking them, but Alex had managed to do that just fine by hanging her up. Still, a captive witch could be a valuable intelligence asset, if they could preserve her.

"Fine." Audacia said, turning around and pulling her hair up away from her Harnest.

There was a large circular device surrounding her Harnest, forming a circle about two inches thick around it. It was made of reflective metal, and a small arm extended from the device to touch the eject button of her Harnest.

"Oh." Alexander said. "I'm not sure how to get it off. I'm sorry."

He felt guilty about that, but he wasn't really sure why. This girl had been attempting to end his life moments ago. Seeing hers in mortal danger instead should have at least relieved him, but it didn't. Aud

"Alexander. There you are." Nathan said. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Audacia." Alex said. "She's... She's the witch that was trying to kill us."

Alex barely saw Nathan move, but suddenly his pistol was in his hand, and a fraction of an instant later, it was leveled at Audacia.

"Don't shoot!" Alex said. "She's non-hostile. I neutralized her powers, there's nothing she can do now."

"I know eight ways I could kill you from her position." Nathan said. "And eleven more to incapacitate her. Why shouldn't I just make the safe decision?"

"Because she could be as asset." Alex said, thinking as he spoke. "Hikari said that she didn't know much about the lab because she was a low-rank witch. Audacia is obviously more powerful. She might know more. More targets we could hit, or resources we could target."

"Fine." Nathan said, lowering his gun slightly. He reached into his pockets and produced a zip-tie cuff, then tossed it to Alex. "Cuff her, and bring her with us."

"Got it." Alexander said, gesturing for Audacia to give him her wrists. "But she's got a beacon on her Harnest. The lab is going to eject her if we don't get it off."

Nathan muttered something inaudible, then grabbed his head and grunted. At the same moment, Ishikawa entered the ruined lobby. Nathan and Alex glanced over at him, then began to explain the situation with Audica.

"So, she could be valuable, but we need to get this beacon off first." Nathan finished.

"Let us bring her to the secondary car." Ishikawa said. "I have an Explosive Ordnance Disposal kit there."

Alexander looked at Nathan and Ishikawa. "What's with you two?" He muttered. "You just happened to bring an EOD kit to this meeting? Just in case you needed to disarm one of Nathan's missiles?"

"I bought it as security against the possibility of having to remove a Harnest beacon from a captive witch," Ishikawa said, "Though I hardly knew that at the time. It simply seemed right."

Anna entered the lobby, still holding her rocket launcher. At almost the same time, Hikari exited from the stairwell, also holding the empty tube of her launcher.

"We need to dispose of the Jaegers." Nathan said. "Surveillance is down around here, but we need to hike a distance to get to the backup car."

"Place them in a storm drain." Ishikawa said, reaching into his pocket. "I reserved an incendiary for just this purpose. It will likely be days before they are found, and my device will fuse them into uselessness."

"Let's do that." Nathan said, turning around as his eyes scanned for the nearest drain. He gestured towards it, and the team began to walk toward it, Alex leading the cuffed Audacia.

Ishikawa removed the manhole cover from the service hatch of the storm drain, and the team members began disposing of their rocket launchers. When they were done, Ishikawa removed a largeish device from his pocket and dropped it into the hole, which he quickly covered with the removed steel plate.

There was a rushing sound, then a small bang, and smoke began to pour out of the storm drain.

"Let's move." Nathan said, "Audacia, hide those cuffs. Last thing we need is to be confused with a bunch of sex traffickers."

Audacia complied, holding her wrists close to her chest, so the cuffs would be camouflaged against the dark silvery material of her costume.

The group moved at a steady clip. Ishikawa removed an device from his pocket and pulled up a map of the area, and led the team through a building and around the police barricade that was being erected around the evacuated portion of the city.

When they exited onto the busy street, it was like stepping into a different world, one without witches and mecha, spies and government conspiracies. They stepped back into a world covered by a facade of normalcy.

A few heads turned at the site of the group with dust on their clothes, but no one said anything. It was, after all, none of their business. A lot of strange things had happened that afternoon, after all, so what were a few more?

The group made their way to a small parking garage several blocks away from the police cordon. They rode the elevator up to the third floor, and where they walked down one aisle toward a black SUV, almost identical to the one that Audacia had destroyed only a few moments before.

"You know, I really wish you hadn't trashed my ride." Nathan grumbled. "I was really starting to like that car."

"I was under orders." Audacia said defensively. "They would have ejected me if I disobeyed."

"Why haven't they done that yet?" Anna asked suddenly. "I mean..."

"My handler would have been focused on leaving the area and getting to the rally point. I have a few more minutes until I'll be expected to show up and he'll send the eject signal.

"We can do something about that." Nathan said, climbing into the driver's seat and flipping a switch.

"This car is equipped with a jamming device to disrupt traces on the vehicle." Ishikawa explained. "However, it operates with sufficient energy to block most signals from handheld devices, such as would likely be used to eject you."

"I see." Audacia said, sounding doubtful.

"Ishikawa, you drive." Nathan said, climbing out of the driver's seat. "I don't really feel up to it."

"Why?" Anna asked. "What happened?"

"I hit my head while running from _someone's _stupid robot." He said, shooting a glance at Audacia. "I've been feeling a little dizzy ever since. I think I might have a concussion." He shook his head. "Anyway, we need to get out of here, and disarm the beacon on Audacia's Harnest. The EOD kit is in the back of the car. Who wants to try their hand at bomb disposal?"

"Can Alex do it?" Anna said, a reluctant note in her voice. "My hands tended to shake a bit when get nervous. I don't think I'm be any good."

"Fine." Audacia said, blushing slightly.

"Alright," Nathan said. "Nathan, get the kit and get in the back of the car with Audacia. Ishikawa, get us out of here."

**BREAK**

Alexander sat down in the back of the vehicle, Audacia kneeling in front of him, her harnest exposed. The beacon sat on and around it like a spider, legs extending toward each of the harnest buttons. There was an elevated circle around the harnest, presumably where the beacon's 'brains' would be stored, and legs attaching the beacon to the back of her neck.

"Alright." Nathan said, from where he sat in front of Audacia. "We have three tasks. Disabling the button-pushing mechanism, disarming the beacon, and detaching it from the prisoner, in that order. To complete any of them, we will need to remove the case from the beacon. Do you see anywhere that looks like a seam on the beacon?"

Alex ran his fingers around the edge of the beacon. Audacia shivered. He felt a few dimples in the side of the machine, likely where screws or other fasteners had been placed.

"I think I found a few screws." Alex said, opening the EOD kit. He began to withdraw a screwdriver, but Nathan held out a hand. "Stop. First, use the current finder to see if those screws are wired up."

"Wired up?" Alex asked.

"If they're connected to a circuit to trigger the bomb, beacon, when tampered with." Nathan explained, holding his head. "If so, we'll have to cut our way in. Use the current finder to see if there's a current running through the screws."

Alexander withdrew the current finder from the kit. It looked like a black pen, with a white plastic tip at the end. Gingerly, he placed it against the one of the screws. If failed to light up.

"That means there's no current." Nathan said. "Take the screws out, carefully, but make sure not to shake them too much."

Alexander didn't respond, but instead began to remove the first screw from the case. It came out easily. The screw itself was a small piece of metal a little longer than Alexander's fingernail. He went to work on the second screw.

After a few moments, he had removed all five screws from the device. "What now?"

"Carefully remove the case." Nathan said. As he spoke, Ishikawa drove the car out of the parking garage and onto the city streets.

Alexander froze as he felt the car jostle as it drove over a speed bump. He put down the current finder and grabbed the case of the beacon. Slowly, he pulled it off and placed it to the side, revealing a rat's nest of circuits and black boxes.

Nathan leaned over and looked at the inner workings of the beacon. "First, we need to remove the power supply and control circuits to the motor that pushes the eject button. If we do that, it should make it a little safer for us to operate.

"Alright." Alexander said. "How do I find the motor?"

"It should be a larger, solid component, connected to the arm that pushed the eject button." Nathan said. "The power supply should, hopefully, be a set of red and black wires leading into it. If not, use the current finder to find the highest voltage set of wires running into the motor."

Alexander looked at the black box on the bottom-left of the harnest. There was a green wire and a white wire running into it, alongside a black and red wire braided together. Alex picked up the current finder and checked each wire. There was a weak current running through the white wire, no current in the green wire, and a strong current in the red and black wires.

"Cut the braided wires." Nathan said. "That should do it."

Alexander drew the wire cutter, placed it against the red and black wires, and applied pressure. The sharp blades of the scissor-like device sliced through the wires, neatly severing them. Audacia winced at the sound, and Alex held his breath.

Nothing happened.

"Alright." Nathan said. "Now cut the white wire and then the green wire."

"How do you know?"

"White wire should be the control wire." Nathan said. Green is probably connected to a dummy system or a trap.

"Alright." Alex said. He took a deep breath, then cut the white wire.

Nothing happened.

Alex moved the cutters over and sliced the green wire.

Once again, the beacon did nothing.

"Alright." Nathan said. "Now, it should be safe to remove the motor that pushes the eject button. Use the cutter tool to carefully remove it."

Alexander drew the cutter tool and applied it to one of the struts holding the eject motor in place. The rapidly vibrating blade of the cutter tore through it easily. Alex slowly cut the other four struts, then wrapped his fingers around the motor. He took a deep breath, then pulled it out.

The beacon did nothing.

"Alright." Nathan said. "Now that that's done, the next step is to remove the power supply of the beacon. Do you see anything that looks like a battery?"

Alex pointed at a case with the cutter tool. "There are a lot of wires going into that case." He said. "Including the one we thought was a power wire. Could that be it?"

Nathan gripped the wall to steady himself as the car made a tight turn, the looked at the box in question. "That looks like it. Cut the wires, then cut it out."

Alexander switched to the wire cutter then began snipping the wires. As he broke the last one, the beacon buzzed and a red LED lit up.

"Cut the power, quick!" Nathan said.

There was no time to be delicate. Alex placed his left hand on the back of Audacia's neck, then grabbed the battery and jerked it out. Audacia grunted as he tore the battery free, and as he did so, the red LED went out.

Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. "There must have been a trap on the battery." He explained. "That got triggered when you cut one of the wires. Either it was on a delay, and we cut the power in time, or it was intended to trigger the eject function, which we already disabled."

"Okay." Alexander said. "What next?"

"We remove the beacon from that girl's neck. That should be easy now that the power is cut."

Alex took a deep breath and squeezed his fingers under the edge of the beacon, touching bare skin. Audacia gasped. Then Alexander _pulled_ upward, and the beacon jerked free.

"Is it off?" Audacia asked.

"Yes, it is." Alexander explained, as Audacia stood up to a squat and turned around. Delicately, she took the hateful object from Alexander's hands and lowered it to the floor. She raised on foot over it, then began stomping it into the floor.

After a few seconds under her boot, the beacon was nothing but a twisted pile of metal and circuitry. Audacia looked up at Alexander, a strange look in her face.

"I'm finally free of them." She said. "I... I thought this day would never come." She looked into Alexander's eyes. "You saved me. I hope you realize that after this, I would do anything for you."

"Yes." Alexander said. "You're welcome. I don't know what I could ask you for-"

Nathan looked at him.

"Actually, I would like to ask if you would be willing-"

"I was hoping to take it slowly." Audacia said, "But if that's-"

"NO!" Alexander said. "I wanted to ask if you would help us in our mission. You have a lot of firepower, and that probably won't be our last clash with lab forces. If you'd join our cell, that would mean a lot to me."

"...Oh." Audacia said, sounding faintly disappointed. Then she brightened. "Of course I'll help you with that, especially if it means getting another shot at those Lab pukes."

"Cell firepower increased by 1643%." Nathan muttered, then looked at Audacia. "Welcome aboard, I suppose. We've got plenty of Death Suppressants, so don't worry about that, for the time being. I'm sure we can find some money in the budget somewhere to pay you. How does a hundred sound, for the time being."

"You don't pay me a hundred-" Alex began, but Nathan wave him to silence.

"A hundred yen?" Audacia said. "That's not very much, but seeing as I wasn't expecting anything-"

Nathan sighed. "A hundred thousand dollars a year, Audacia." He said. "That translates to something like eighty-five thousand yen a month."

"You don't pay me eighty-five thousand yen a month." Alex said. "If I knew that we were getting out the checkbook, I would have-"

"We don't pay you eighty-five thousand yen a month, Alexander," Nathan said, "But you don't have a giant robot either, so be quiet, please."

"I don't think the robot is all she can do." Alex said. "She was really strong when we fought, before I hung her up, anyway."

Audacia blushed as he said 'hung up'. "That's my personal telekinesis." She said. "I can generate a powerful force inside my own body to increase my strength and jumping ability. With my power, I can even run on walls."

Nathan whistled. "That's pretty impressive." He said. "And that's in addition to summoning a giant robot?"

"Yes." Audacia said. "I wouldn't be able to do the robot thing for a few more hours, though, even if I wasn't hung up. In any case, I'm a AA+ rank Witch hybrid. That means I have two types of magic, my robot thing, which is A+ ranked, and my personal telekinesis, which is B ranked."

Anna's head popped up from behind the high seat back separating the back from the rest of the car. "If you guys are done." She said. "We've got to find some place to hide. The local cops are out in force, and they're looking for answers."

"And there's no telling how many of them are on the Lab's payroll." Audacia said. "We need to get out of here."

Hikari's head appered next to Anna. "Nathan, do you know any safe houses in this area?"

"Yeah, but they're all in the city limits." Nathan said. "And I don't think we want to stay there. We want to blend in with the crowd feeling the city and the obvious terror attack. That make us harder to associate with the event. Anyway, keep driving. I'll think of something."

"I'll start looking too." Anna said, then disappeared back behind her seat.

Nathan pulled out his phone and started looking at something. Alexander looked at Hikari nervously, not sure what he could do to help.

After a few moments, Nathan spoke. "I've got a place." He said. "Its remote, nearly abandoned, and only one person ever goes there. Ishikawa, I'm sending you the directions."

**Break**

Ichiro Sato walked into the main room of the observatory, carrying a tray of drinks. "What's going on?" He asked, looking around. The whole astronomy club was present, though none of them appered to be doing anything. Ryouta was sitting at his computer, looking at something.

"Not much." Kazumi said. "Things have been kind of quiet since the raid on the Dresden Facility. The second one, I mean."

"Not for everyone." Ryouta said, pointing at his computer screen. Look at this.

Ichiro put down his tray of drinks and walked over to the computer screen. "Terrorist attack in Tokyo?" He read. "Mass bombings in the Akihabara area? Casualties unknown at present, massive destruction." He shook his head. "Who could have done this?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Ryouta said. "Kazumi and I went to Akihabara not to long ago, so its possible that the Lab has something to do with this. but I'm trying to figure out what. What would they have to gain by attack a random area, that we just happened to visit not to long ago?"

"Maybe there's someone else working against the Lab." Kazumi said idly. "Maybe someone other than us is being attacked for a change."

"Or maybe this has nothing to do with the lab." Kuroha said. "It could be that this is just a terrorist attack."

"Still, what are the odds of that?" Ichiro said. "All this crazy stuff starts happening, and suddenly _now_ there's a major terrorist attack?" Ichiro walked over to the computer and looked at it for a moment. "Plus, look at this. No major terrorist groups have taken credit for the attack. That points to it being suspicious, if nothing else."

"Yes." Ryouta said. "But what we need to figure out is how this affects us. What can we gain from this incident?"

"I don't know." Kuroha said. "How could we use this to get more Death Suppressants?"

As Ryouta opened his mouth to answer her, there was a loud knocking at the front door to the observatory. Nothing happened for a moment, then there was a loud series of clicks, and the distinctive sound of the door sliding open.

"What the-" Ryouta sprang out of his seat and was halfway down the stairs when a group of people waked in the front door of the observatory.

All but one of them were dressed in plain street clothes, but they moved like soldiers as they entered. Or at the very least, the first two in the door did. The four behind them moved gracefully, but not with the elegance of the first two.

One of the intruders, a young caucasian man, spotted Ryouta. He raised a hand and pointed at him.

In an instant, pistols were in the hands of the first two men.

"What are you doing here?" One of them, an older-looking Japanese man, demanded, in Japanese.

"What am _I_ doing here?" Ryouta said, somewhat indignantly. His grace with people pointing guns at him had increased somewhat in previous weeks, but he was far from comfortable with it. "This is my Club's observatory. What are _you_ doing here?"

"You are the sole member of your school's astronomy club, correct?" The second gunman, a white man, said.

"No." Ryouta muttered. "There's me and three others, plus our mascot."

"Great." The young man who had first spotted Ryouta groaned. "More witnesses."

"Can't we just kill them all?" The oddly dressed girl said.

"No, that would be wrong." The boy said, then looked at Ryouta. "You're Ryouta Murakami, correct?"

"Yes." Ryouta said. "Now, why are you in my observatory?"

"We're hikers. We got lost and came here for help." The Caucasian man said.

"They why do you have pistols?" Ryouta demanded. "That's illegal, you know. And I'm pretty sure I can see your car parked over there under those trees. Who are you, and what are you really doing here?"

"You want the truth?" The Caucasian man said. "Fine. We're a team of spies on a mission to investigate and disrupt the activity of an organization engaged in immoral human experimentation involving the supernatural. There, you happy?"

"Really?" Ryouta said, hardly believing what the man was saying. "Are you-"

"Naturally, you don't believe me, because everyone knows there's no such thing as magic, or Witches, or any of that. But that's-"

Ryouta made a snap calculation. None of the Lab assassins had stopped to talk, and this team looked like it was made up of professionals. Whoever these people were, they probably weren't from the Lab.

"I believe you." Ryouta said. "I have four Witches with me right now."

"Seriously?" The man said. "What do you mean? Is this some sort of cult?"

"I think he's telling the truth." The young man said. He turned to the Japanese girl with him and whispered something in her ear, then turned to face Ryouta. "If you invite us in, we can discuss this like civilized people." He said.

"Fine." Ryouta said. "Put the guns away and come upstairs. But If you make trouble, my Witches will end you."

It was a pathetic bluff, but these intruders didn't have to know that. As Ryouta led strange gruoup up the stairs, he was struck by a sudden feeling that his life was about to become much more complicated.

Again.

**[x]**

As soon as the boy settled the team on his benches, he began the conversation.

"Who are you?" The boy began, "And why are you here? If you don't tell me-"

"Calm down." Nathan said. "My name is Smith, and we're a team from MI6-"

"No, you aren't." The boy said. "I know when someone is lying, and you are."

"Thought I was better." Nathan mumbled. "Fine. We're CIA, and we're investigating some creepy lab that's been doing human experiments. They sent one of their Witches after us, and we trashed a couple blocks of Tokyo fighting her off. Now, we're befriended her and we need someplace to lie low until the heat burns off. Now who are you?"

The boy blinked. "Really? You're fighting the Lab too? What are you doing here?"

"Like I said, we're investigating and disrupting their activities. Now tell me who you are." Nathan said.

"Also." Alex said. "What are you doing involved in something like this?"

"I'm Ryouta. One of the of the Witches transferred into my class." Ryouta said. "One thing led to another, and I started protecting these girls."

"I see." Alexander said.

"Tell me something." Ryouta said. "We you the ones who attack the Dresden facility the second time?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the U.S. Government in any such activity." Nathan responded.

"Oh." Ryouta said, frowning. "I was hoping that you'd have some Death Suppressants. They are pills that Witches need to take to avoid dying."

"We're familiar with the substance." Nathan said. "And we have a supply of the pills."

"Really?" The Dark-haired girl sitting next to Ryouta said. "How many do you have?"

"We have two witches of our own to sustain." Nathan said, gesturing to Audica and Hikari. "So we will require something in trade in exchange for access to our limited supply of the pills."

"Fine." Ryouta said. "You can say here, if you give us Death Suppressants. Ten pills per person per day."

"Five." Nathan said. "And we only have fifteen pills for each of our witches on us at present. I can arrange a delivery for more, but that will take time."

Nathan reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of bills. "How many pills is this worth?"

Ryouta's eyes narrowed as he looked at the cash. "You can stay for two days on that. And you need to cover your own living expenses.

"Three days, and we pay you to bring us food." Nathan said.

"We need the pills. I'll agree to that if you throw in five pills now." Ryouta said.

"Fine." Nathan said. He casually tossed Ryouta the stack of bills. The boy looked through them for a moment, then nodded.

"Keep your guns away, but make yourselves at home." Ryouta said. "You can sleep on the ground floor. I think we have enough futons for all of you. Stay away from the girls, and don't leave the building."

**Break**

"So what do you think of our new guests?" Ryouta said. The guests in question were moving into the lower level of the observatory, while the residents were discussing on the top level.

"I don't know." Kazumi said. "I've run a quick check on them, but I couldn't find much. They've had someone who knows what they're doing wipe a lot of their records, but I found a deleted message in a CIA database mentioning the boy. I think they're for real, but I don't know about their intentions."

"I don't like it." Ichiro said. "I mean, we need Death Suppressants, and then someone who has them just walks in the door? It feels like a setup."

"But what would their objective be?" Ryouta said. "No matter how you slice it, we need those pills, and the ones they gave us already bought you guys another day of life."

**Break**

Alex held his finger to his ear as he listened to the conversation in the room above. It was a bit muffled, but he could make out Ryouta say that they needed the death suppressants.

"What are you doing, Alex?" Hikari asked, looking at Alexander.

"Nothing." He said, putting his hands in his pockets. "I was just thinking about everything that happened." He sighed. "It's been pretty crazy."

"I've been wondering about Audica." Hikari said. "I mean, I don't like her for some reason. I think she's a spy."

Alexander sighed. "We're all spies."

"I think she might turn us in to the lab." Hikari said. "She switched sides so easily..."

"Wouldn't you do the same, though?" Alexander asked. "I mean, you said that the Lab treats you pretty poorly. Why would you have any loyalty to them?"

"I don't like her either." Anna said, entering the room.

"Why not?" Alex asked.

"I don't know!" Anna said. "I think-"

"Hikari already accused her of being a spy. Or a double agent, I guess." Alexander said.

Anna shot Hikari a glare.

"Still. The way she was acting toward you..."

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked. "I don't think she was-"

"Who are you guys talking about?" Audacia asked, sticking her head in the door. "I was just helping set up the futons."

She walked into the room, elbowed past the other two girls, and stopped next to Alex. "We're one short, though."

"Well maybe we can have Ryouta-" Alex began.

"You want to share with me?" Audica said. "That's a bit forward, don't you think? But I'm fine with it, I suppose."

"That wasn't what I was proposing!" Alex said, almost shouting. "Anyway, I think dinner's almost ready. We need to make our next plan."


End file.
